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Canoeing in Kanuckia 



HAPS AND MISHAPS 



AFLOAT AND ASHORE 



THE STATESMAN, THE EDITOR, THE 
ARTIST, AND THE SCRIBBLER 



RECORDED BY 

THE COMMODORE AND THE COOK 

(C. L. N NORTON AND JOHN HABBERTON) 



3' 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

182 Fifth Avenue 

1878. 



)] 



'II 






Copyright by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1678. 






v 



/ 



•V 



\ 






DEDICATION 



THIS 

VOLUME 
is 

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF 

KING CANUTE, 

WHO TOOK 
A 

ROYAL DUCKING 

WITH AN EQUANIMITY WHICH FAIRLY ENTITLES 
HIM TO RECOGNITION 

BY 

THE CANOE CLUB. 



PREFACE 



MELANCHOLY as the admission must necessarily 
be to persons with aspirations toward literary 
Art, the authors are forced to acknowledge that most 
of the incidents recounted therein actually occurred dur- 
ing a canoeing cruise to the Northward, in which they 
were participants ; that the localities described have a 
geographical existence, and that the persons introduced 
and the experiences recorded are, with trifling exceptions, 
true to the life. They frankly admit that they might not 
have been so truthful had they suffered from lack of in- 
cident, but their perplexities have arisen from too much 
good material instead of too little. Departures from 
strict veracity have been made solely on the ground of 
good fellowship. 

The authors being blessed with ordinary human per- 
ception, it is not strange that they fully realize their own 
superiority to their companions in point of virtue, manli- 
ness, good-seamanship, personal appearance, adaptability, 
etc.. etc. They have thought it simply honorable, there- 
forego separate individual traits and experiences, each by 



8 PREFACE. 

themselves, and redistribute them without prejudice or 
partiality among the entire quartette. 

As the effect of this generosity has been to cause some 
doubt on the part of each member of the expedition as 
to his own personal identity, it is certain that no one of 
them can be successfully reconstructed by any outsider. 
How unalloyed a blessing the public thus enjoys, is not 
for the self-renouncing authors to point out in detail. 

P. S. BY THE COOK. It has been found impractica- 
ble to prevent the Commodore from causing to be in- 
serted in the following pages certain efforts of his own 
which he is pleased to denominate " Sketches." He is 
apparently actuated by the hope that they will pass for 
professional work. The real Artist of the expedition, 
however, being solicitous regarding his own reputation, 
wishes it distinctly understood that he is responsible only 
for those illustrations which are signed by him in full, and 
has deputed the Cook to warn the public to this effect. 



CONTENTS,, 



PAGE 

Introduction 15 

I. 

Getting under way 21 

II. 

Cooks and Coffee Pots and Seamanship 38 

III. 
The Cook studies Navigation 49 

IV. 
The Wreck of the Rochefort 68 

V. 
Sunshine and Shadow 80 

VI. 
My Native Land Farewell 88 

VII. 
Garrison Life in 

VIII. 
The Beginning of Acadia , 129 



10 CONTENTS. 

IX. PAGB 

Areas of Rain 145 

X. 
Acadia 166 

XI. 
Several Other Days 181 

XII. 
A Change of Scene 206 

XIII. 
Swift Water 212 

XIV. 
More Rapids 223 

XV. 
The Beginning of the End 229 

Appendix 249 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGH 

1. The Cook Jibes . . 2- 

2. The Authors 20 _ 

3. Mile. Rochefort at home 22 — 

4. Chrysalis and Chrysalid 23 

5. The Twins 24- 

6. Kayak Birch, Rob Roy 26 

7. Under full sail — Chrysalid 28-— 

8. Close hauled. Red Laker 30—. 

9. The Quartette 32— 

10. The local Small-boy , 33 

1 1. Coffee Pot before 43 

12. Coffee Pot after 44 

13. A Sporhungan 46 

14. The Sanctuary 48 -~ 

15. The Cook selects a Boom 50 

16. Gosh 57^ 

17. The Vice's Boom toggle 58 

18. The Commodore's Sprit 50, 

19. Island Camp 61 •-. 

20. A Vigorous Pull 63^, 

21. A little too vigorous 65 ^ 

22. Aquatic Leap frog 66 

23. " His ship she was a wrack " 69 

24. The Cook's Tent 78 

25. Green grow the rushes 83 

26. " But the Consul's brow was sad " 89 

27. The United States Garrison 93 

28. The Purser on British Soil 94 

29. A Canoe Seat 99 



12 ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

30. The Picturesque afar 101 

31. The Picturesque anear 10) p\ 

32. Wahuei '. 10^ yj 

33. Supper Table ... 107 

34. An unknown Fortress 112 

35. The British Garrison 115 ] j U 

36. The Sally Port 116 

37. The Vampire Bat 118 

38. The Commandant 120 

39. The Commandant's Lady 122 

40. The Dock , 133 — 

41. Under the Elms ' I39-- 

42. The Enchantress 142 - 

43. Boat, Aristocratic 146 

44. Boat, Plebeian , 146 

45. The Commodore Weather-bound 147. 

46. Aux Armes Citoyennes ■ 153.. 

47. Alone with his Conscience I59^_ 

48. The Typical Church 161 

49. Water Front 168^ 

50. Down the Rapids 170- ' 

51. No Ruins in America (Ruskin) 174.. 

52. Canadian Loaf, etc 171 

53. A Quiet Cove 177- 

54. A Charming Landscape 186- 

55. A shock to the Commodore's Nerves 188- 

56. Use Laundry Soap and be Happy 205 

57. Down the Race 210 

58. In the Second Rapids 208 

59. The Vice sits for his Portrait ... 218 

60. Comparative Coffee Cups .* . 226 



INTRODUCTORY. 



"/^^ O see her?— c( 

vjr " So win i ! 



O see her ?— certainly I will! " said the Artist. 
14 So will I!" exclaimed the Scribbler, jumping 
to ~~his feet and rearranging his neck-tie ; " if she is 
half as beautiful as you say, I'd go every day to 
see her, even were the trip twice the score of miles 
that it is." 

" And I," said the Editor, replacing in his vest-pocket 
the folding-scissors which he nervously fingered by force 
of professional habit. 

" 'Tis done, then," said the Statesman, "she will be 
at my house to-morrow evening and the winter through, 
but she is particularly handsome and graceful just now, 
and there's no time like the present, you know. Dine 
with me to-morrow evening: I'll give you a tip-top 
spread, but when you see her you'll forget it all." 

" We will come ! " shouted the Artist, the Scribbler 
and the Editor in chorus, and when twenty-four hours 
later the trio fulfilled their promise, they admitted that 
the half had not been fold them. They exhibited how- 
ever, none of that unseemly jealousy which would natu- 
rally be expected from a trio of admirers at sight of an 



I 6 NTRODUCTORY. 

almost phenomenal beauty, for the object of their admi- 
ration was a canoe, and accepted their attentions with an 
impartiality which would have been the envy of any 
society queen. She occupied the study of the Statesman, 
and covered almost as much space as if she were a lady 
with a train of the first magnitude ; she was in every line 
the embodiment of grace, and her beauty was not entirely 
independent of paint and other cosmetics. But here the 
parallel ceased. In visiting a canoe the visitor enjoys 
certain liberties which are not admissible during an 
ordinary evening call. A gentleman may speak in most 
enthusiastic praise of a canoe, and right to her face, with- 
out being suspected of a desire to flirt ; he may criticise 
freely without seeming unmannerly ; he may even talk 
admiringly of other canoes without disturbing the out- 
ward or inward complacency of his fair entertainer. He 
may even unlock his wits with a good cigar without pro- 
voking a cough from the fair being, and without compel- 
ling her to send her finer adornments to the bleachery 
next day, or expose them on the family clothes-line, to the 
purifying breezes of heaven. One may look fixedly by 
the hour at a beautiful canoe without being guilty of un- 
gentlemanly staring, and may thus call up all those finer 
sentiments which far transcend the powers of expres- 
sion, and may thus elevate his own nature to a degree 
which is unattainable under the restrictions of a fashiona- 
ble call. He may without offence or even discourtesy, 
touch her, though if he be a man of true character he can 



INTRODUCTORY. IJ 

not do so without a struggle with natural timidity, and 
without a new sense of his own awkwardness. 

The quartette gazed, and smoked, until the fair out- 
line before them became veiled in the soft haze which so 
enhances the glories of a perfect form and a rich com- 
plexion. They talked, they mused, they talked again ; 
the Artist, the Scribbler and the Editor talked of their 
own special darlings of the same genus. They mused 
again, then they fell once more to admiring. The one 
blot upon the perfection of the being before them was 
that her sole guardian had christened her " Rochefort," 
but the Statesman, like statesmen in general, had his weak- 
nesses, and if men cannot be tenderly enduring of the 
weaknesses of their friends, what statesman can live ? At 
length the Rochefort's protector broke silence by saying, 

" Can you fellows gaze upon her, and talk of her ri- 
vals, and then refuse to go on a cruise this summer ? " 

11 Not I ! " exclaimed the Editor. 

" Refuse ? " exclaimed the Scribbler, and then he be- 
trayed his Hibernian ancestry by adding, " I'd go alone, 
for the sake of havincr her with me." 

" And I know just where to go," said the Artist. " I 
know of a picturesque lake whose outlet is a placid river 
flowing through an Acadia like that which Longfellow 
has pictured, and breaking at last into wild rapids down 
which we can run like salmon in the fall." 

" Is Evangeline still there?" asked the Statesman; 
with symptoms of lively interest. 



l8 INTRODUCTORY. 

" She is every where," replied the Artist. 

"Why," said the Statesman, examining his mental 
memoranda, " she died two centuries ago." 

" She is perennial," answered the Artist, and the States- 
man inwardly cursed his own literal perceptives. 

"Let's take our sentiment when we are there," sug- 
gested the Editor ; " this is the hour for action." 

The conversation which ensued need not be detailed 
here. It would consume so much ink and paper as ma- 
terially to raise the price of these staples. It is sufficient 
to say that the quartette silenced forever the calumnious 
statement that only ladies talk two or three at a time, 
and that the necessary supplies decided upon for the trip 
exceeded in bulk the cargo of that most capacious vessel, 
the Mayflower. 




CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



GETTING UNDER WAY. 

ALL night the Statesman, the Editor, the Artist and 
the Scribbler had been rumbling northward in a sleep- 
ing car, and as day dawned the steady and quickened 
clank of wheels told that they were on a down grade 
toward the Lake, and nearing the point where vacation 
was really to begin. They had turned into their respect- 
ive berths somewhere south of Albany ; they awoke and 
looked down from a precipitous hillside into the clear 
Lake. Presently the train slowed and in another minute 
they were questioning the station-master about their 
canoes, which had preceded them as freight some days 
before. 

"No, can't wait till after breakfast. Must see them 
now." 

So the station-master rather reluctantly unlocked his 
freight room and there in a row side by side lay the " Red 
Lakers" and the " Chrysalids," for all the world like two 
pairs of twins tucked in a big bed together. For the 
station-master — bless him ! — had thoughtfully spread a 



CHRYSALIS AND CHRYSALID. 



23 



tarpaulin over them so that only their darling noses were 
in sight. 

It should here be explained that the terms " Red 
Lake " and Chrysalid " designate certain models of ca- 
noes, the first being named for the locality where the 
canoes are built, while the appropriateness of the second 
must be evident from the accompanying sketch. 

Let the Expeditions Persons now be introduced. 





Chrysalis and Chrysalid. 

Behold the Becky Sharp (flag-ship) and the Cherub, 
commanded respectively by the Editor and the Scrib- 
bler, and constituting the " First Division." Behold also 
the "ROCHEFORT" and the " ARETHUSELA "* forming 



* The artist begs the authors to explain that this name is the result of 
a compromise between the friends of two domestic cats " Arabella " and 
" Methusela," neither of whom would consent to have the boat named ex- 
clusivelv after the other. 



THE ARTIST SPEAKS. 25 

the Second Division, and commanded by the Statesman 
and the Artist. 

Over the meeting between each man and his canoe 
a veil is delicately drawn. Even the station-master con- 
siderately stepped out upon the platform during the few 
moments when each metaphorically made his canoe put 
out its tongue and answer questions as to its moral and 
physical well-being. The interview was satisfactory 
to all save the Statesman, who detected several minute 
scratches on the deck of the Rochefort and declared that 
palpable demoralization had resulted from her enforced 
association with Red Lakers. 

The Artist having volunteered to stay by the boats 
while his companions breakfasted at the neighboring 
tavern, was straightway beset by a number of wayfarers 
who demanded full accounts of the canoes and of canoeing 
in general. The Artist had been in the lecture field, and 
as the spirit was strong upon him, he gave the assembled 
multitude (about a dozen in all) a comprehensive account 
of the art. No reporter was present, but his remarks are 
believed to have been about as follows : 

" In the civilized acceptation of the term, gentlemen," 
(here the six small boys who composed a fraction of the 
audience punched one another in the ribs,) modern canoe- 
ing dates back only a few years, — some fifteen in England 
and half as many in America. Its acknowledged progeni- 
tor is Mr. John Macgregor, an English barrister to whom 
was vouchsafed the brilliant idea of crossing the canoe of 



20 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

the North American Indian with the Esquimaux Kayak, 
for purposes of civilized recreation, the product being a 
hybrid known as the Rob Roy model. (Here the speaker 
seized the station-master's chalk and drew rapidly upon 
the wall in illustration of his meaning.) Although the 




Kayak— Birch— Rob-Roy. 

canoe exists among all savage nations, it reached its 
greatest perfection for inland and coastwise navigation 
among the North American Indians. The ' birch,' as 
it is familiarly called, is so nearly perfect for use on forest 
streams that the Hudson's Bay Company, after various 
experiments with wood and iron, settled down, years ago, 
to its almost exclusive use for their vast transportation 
service extending throughout the British American Pos- 
sessions. The Kayak, built as it is of a light frame with 
skin stretched over it, has less weight and more strength 
than the birch, and as it is all covered over excepting a 
man-hole amidships, it is evidently the more seaworthy of 
the two. It has, however, no carrying capacity to speak 
of, beyond its crew of one." 



THE ARTISTS' LECTURE. 2J 

"A different craft from either of these is required for 
the use of the civilized voyager. He wants a boat which 
will not, like the birch, leak if it happens to touch bottom. 
He wants one which will retain its buoyancy even when 
full of water ; which at a pinch he can carry alone across a 
portage ; which is roomy enough to sleep in, large enough 
to carry stores and equipments for a reasonable number 
of days, staunch and seaworthy in any weather when it 
is pleasant to be on the water, and readily obedient to 
his hand under sail or paddle. 

" No doubt Mr. Macgregor drew his first inspiration 
from the two barbarian models referred to. He designed 
a boat known as the ' Rob-Roy,' which was easy to pad- 
dle, which could be slept in, and in which he made many 
long cruises. It was, however, decidedly faulty in many 
particulars, being wet and uncomfortable in a sea-way, 
owing to its lack of ' sheer ;' it was also of small sailing ca- 
pacity. In smooth water, the ' Rob-Roy ' has its advanta- 
ges, but for general purposes the ' Nautilus' model is de- 
cidedly its superior. This was designed by Mr. Baden 
Powell, another Englishman, who improved on Mr. Mac- 
gregor's model by giving his boat greater ' bearings,' that 
is, a broader and flatter bottom, that of the original Rob 
Roy being nearly semi-circular, and by raising her lines 
at stem and stern so that it was nearly impossible to drive 
her nose under in a sea-way. This made her very diffi- 
cult to manage under paddle with the wind abeam, 
so in subsequent plans the sheer was considerably 






Ml 111); 







THE ARTIST S LECTURE. 2Q 

reduced, and the change proved to be a decided im- 
provement. 

" The ' Chrysalids ' (here the speaker indicated the 
Arethusela and the Rochefort) are variations of the 
Nautilus type. You perceive at a glance their great 
superiority in every particular over the ' Red Laker ' 
(pointing to the Cherub and the Becky Sharp) which 
lie beside them, and which are merely elaborate copies 
of the Indian birch made of wood and rigged for cruising. 
I will draw for you a Chrysalid under sail." (The Artist 
turned again to his extemporized black-board and with a 
few rapid strokes produced the sketch on page 28. 

Meanwhile the local population had dropped in one 
by one, until he had a respectable audience, and the 
Scribbler, who had finished his breakfast and drawn near, 
began to consider the expediency of taking up a collec- 
tion. 

" You see how ship-shape she is in all respects, (ap- 
plause, the Artist bowing,) I will now, in order that my 
fellow voyagers may not accuse me of partiality, show you 
also a Red Laker under sail." Again the station-master's 
chalk was in requisition, and presently a sketch something 
like this adorned the wall. As the Artist was proceeding, 
a youth near the door, who, the Artist vows, had been 
bribed by the Scribbler, checked him with, " I say, mister, 
that th^re Red Laker makes the best looking picter of the 
two, don't it ?" 

The Artist had not compared his illustrations, and on 



THE ARTIST CEASES. 31 

glancing at them, was obliged to explain that certain 
peculiarities of outline assuredly did give a false impres- 
sion in this instance : — However," he went on easily, re- 
suming the imperturbable manner which had become 
habitual with him in the desk, " as I was about to say, 
having thus become Anglicized, it was merely a question 
of time how soon the modern and improved canoe should 
be re-naturalized in America. It was introduced in 1872 
by Mr. W. L. Alden, founder and senior member of the 
New York Canoe Club, an association to which the boats 
before you belong, and which now has a fleet of about 
thirty canoes, and a somewhat larger number of active 
and honorary members." 

The Artist ceased and the Scribbler led off in a round 
of applause, which was however, but feebly seconded. 

Breakfast over, the quartette donned their blue flan- 
nels and sauntered down to the shore, followed by a 
curious throng of the inhabitants. (N. B. The throng of 
inhabitants is seen at the right.) 

The Lake, which at an early hour had been placid as 
a anglican sermon, was, by the time the fleet was ready 
to start, breaking furiously against the wharf before a 
northerly breeze and the mariners were glad to launch 
and stow their canoes under the lee of the railway bridge, 
and the critical supervision of the local small-boy. 

For six months the four comrades had made prepara- 
tions for the cruise, but the knowledge which worketh 
experience worked also calamity, for the stores which 



THE LOCAL SMALL BOY. 33 

were unloaded from steamboats and express cars on the 
shore of the lake, would have justified each captain of a 
canoe in chartering a steamer of moderate dimensions as 



£||K\V\S 




The Local Small Boy. 

a tender. As such a course would have tended to the 
destruction of the picturesqueness of the squadron under 
sail, it was given up without a murmur, so the quartette, 
each man for himself, proceeded to the exasperating duty 
of deciding what he best could spare and return. The 
Statesman decided against carrying a tent, a tin pail, a 
couple of hundred weight of canned goods, a life- 
preserver, a Bible and a looking-glass which he had 
brought with him, but retained a double-barrelled gun, 
a twenty-pound bag of duck-shot and a volume of Tup- 
per's " Proverbial Philosophy." 

11 If your boat springs a leak, no earthly power can 
save her, with such a cargo," said the Editor. 

" I'll keep the shot where I can drop it overboard in 
such case," briskly replied the Statesman. 



34 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

"What good will that do?" asked the Editor, " if the 
Tupper remains on board ? " 

" The Tupper will make a capital anchor, though," 
suggested the Artist, as he reluctantly laid upon a heap, 
to be returned, a field easel, a camp-stool, a medicine- 
chest, a set of Shakespeare in three volumes, and a 
demijohn, the latter, by some deplorable oversight, having 
arrived empty. The Scribbler carefully inspected two 
bulky portmanteaus, extracted therefrom a single change 
of underclothing, a box of cigars, a tooth-brush and a 
comb, and returned the bags with their contents. The 
Editor concluded that perhaps he might be safe in Aca- 
dia without the copy of Webster's Dictionary which he 
had brought thus far in several thicknesses of rubber 
cloth, and a mental survey of the proposed route con- 
vinced him that he might dispense with his faithful 
scissors and paste-pot, inasmuch as no newspaper was 
published on either the Lake or the River, but he stowed 
in his boat a gold headed-cane and a horse-pistol, ex- 
plaining, as he did so, 

" These are the interviewer's only faithful friends." 

The individual property thus rejected, with tjie su- 
perfluous stores which had been purchased en bloc by 
the quartette, threatened for a little while to cause a 
"corner" in freight cars, but a threat to charter several 
steamers which were idle upon the Lake brought the 
railway agent to his senses, and gave his Company an 
excuse to put upon Wall Street a story of sudden in- 



APPORTIONMENT OF TITLES. 35 

crease of gross earnings. The rejected cargoes were 
stowed, and then the Editor, calling his companions 
apart from the immense crowd of gazers and listeners, said, 

" Gentlemen, by virtue of long experience as a fight- 
ing editor, I hereby assume command of this expedition, 
and propose to be obeyed and respected accordingly. 
I detail the Statesman as Vice-commodore, commanding 
the Second Division. " 

"Vice," murmured the Artist, "what an ideal title 
for a Statesman ! " 

The Commodore continued, " The Artist I appoint 
Purser — " 

" What delicious sarcasm ! " interrupted the newly 
appointed Vice ; "the idea of an Artist taking care of 
money ! Judas and his bag are nowhere." 

" And the Scribbler," resumed the Commodore, " will 
be Cook, a position to which his experience in concoct- 
ing literary hash most richly entitles him. During the 
cruise all family, baptismal and social names will be 
dropped, and the members of the expedition will be 
known only by their nautical titles. Is every one ready 
to embark ? " 

"Ready!" replied the Vice, the Purser and the Cook 
in chorus ; the paddles were seized, and the Commodore 
was giving the command "Shove off!" when the Vice 
exclaimed, 

" Gracious ! how could I have forgotten it ? " Then 
he ran to the pile of rejected material and rescued an 



36 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

immense brown paper parcel containing something which 
seemed to be instinct with every angle and line known 
to the student of conic sections. Hurriedly stowing it 
away in his forward compartment, he shoved his boat 
from the beach. 

" What is it ? " shouted the fleet. 

" It was a present to me from a constituent," roared 
he, at the top of his lungs, the wind whisking away his 
words. " That's what it is." 

This was accepted as a diplomatic and statesmanlike 
way of saying " None of your business," so the rest held 
their peace, and gave themselves to the serious work of 
making headway against the sea. 

'Tis ever thus ! Never have any of the Four start- 
ed on a cruise without having at the very beginning to 
tax their as yet unaccustomed muscles by paddling 
straight in the teeth of an adverse gale. Of course the 
canoes are at their heaviest and must be expected to leak 
more or less after a fortnight's baking in a box-car. So 
when all are ready the command paddles round through 
the draw, points toward a headland three miles off dead to 
windward, and doggedly settles down to its work. It takes 
nearly two hours to cover the distance, and the Chrysalids 
have had to bail at frequent intervals under the protect- 
ing care of Red Lakers. The headland is reached at 
last, however, and then comes the bath for which all have 
been longing. If any future explorer finds an unaccount- 
able deposit of cinders and scoriae off that point he may 



THE ENCAMPMENT. 37 

ascribe them, if he likes, to prehistoric volcanic convul- 
sions, but the four voyagers know better. 

It was now noon, and a substantial luncheon was fol- 
lowed by a long siesta under the cedars, while lungs ac- 
customed to inhale the de-oxidized atmosphere of the 
city filled themselves with the first draughts of ozone 
from the great paradise of spruce which stretches almost 
unbroken from the Canada line to the Arctic circle. 
Grand mountain forms rose against the sky, the city was 
far away ; they were free ! 

The sun lacked but three hours of setting, when the 
squadron shook off the delicious languor that succeeded 
its unwonted exertions, bailed out the Chrysalids, now 
thoroughly soaked, and in a condition which their owners 
were pleased to consider " tight," wiped up with a sponge 
the few drops that had penetrated the seams of the Red 
Lakers, and paddled merrily away toward an island blue 
in the afternoon haze, on which it had been determined to 
camp over Sunday. The lake was by this time ashamed 
of the boisterous welcome it had given to the fleet, and 
was undergoing a burnishing process preparatory to serv- 
ing as a mirror for the sunset. By dusk camp was made 
in a lean-to left by some considerate predecessors. The 
canoes were anchored in the lee of a shingly point, ex- 
cepting the Rochefort, which her commander carefully, 
and for some inscrutable parliamentary reason, anchored 
to windward, and by nine o'clock all, with one exception, 
were rolled in their blankets, and sound asleep. 



II. 



COOKS AND COFFEE POTS AND SEAMAN- 
SHIP. 

AS is the case in all well regulated families, the Cook 
was the first person to greet the morning of the sec- 
ond day. He not only did so, but he greeted it in its 
extreme infancy, an instant after his own watch, had it 
been a repeater, would have struck midnight, and from 
this moment onward he manifested the liveliest interest 
in the growth of the new day. His impatience could 
scarcely be attributable to a desire to see the sun rise, for 
at home the Cook habitually rose at dawn, and had already 
an unequalled collection of sunrises in his mental port- 
folio. In truth, the Cook was very cold. He had smiled 
pityingly as he saw his companions retire each under a 
pair of woolen blankets, while he himself stretched freely 
upon his rubber sheet, with no covering whatever. 
Woolen blankets in July, when at midday the thermome- 
ter stood at ninety degrees in the shade ! — the Cook per- 
spired anew at the thought, and chuckled over the supe- 
rior good luck which had led him to forget his blankets 
when he left New York, thereby materially reducing the 
bulk of his equipment. Woolen blankets might be neces- 
sary to the city existence of the Statesman, the Editor 



39 

and the Artist, for each of the gentlemen represented 
professions which are notoriously cold-blooded, but as 
for the Scribbler — well, all scribblers come early in life to 
regard blankets as rarely attainable luxuries, and to de- 
pend for warmth upon their own inner man. 

But on this particular occasion the inner man of the 
Cook failed to respond to the demand made upon it. 
The Cook would have encouraged the inner man had he 
known where the expeditionary brandy was kept, but no 
racking of memory elicited the information desired. He 
scraped carefully among the ashes of his evening fire, 
hoping that some coals might have remained alive to 
kindle a new one, but the fire had been of wood too small 
to leave coals, and the Cook's matches were wet. He 
might have had dry matches, brandy — yes, and a share in 
the blankets themselves, all in an instant, had he but awak- 
ened either of his brother officers. But the Cook's pride 
exceeded in greatness even his discomfort, so he sought 
consolation in his own reflections, as men are always pos- 
sessed to do at just such times, when their reflections are 
in the most shocking condition imaginable. The Cook 
paced the sand, hugged himself, and tried to believe that 
there had been no such day as yesterday, and that he 
had never left a blanket in New York. Then he tried to 
draw his rubber blanket noiselessly from the tent, to throw 
over his shoulders, but one side of the Purser rested upon 
its extreme edge, and the Purser was of the conventional 
English ponderosity. Then the Cook tried to revive his 



40 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

spirits with a song, sung softly between his teeth, but 
these last named gateways of sound were trembling so 
that the song itself became sadly demoralized. The 
Cook had once written a convincing essay on " The 
Power of the Imagination, as Exemplified by Physical 
Facts," and recalling this, he soliloquized " Physician, heal 
thyself! " Honestly he endeavored to obey the injunc- 
tion, by imagining himself burrowing in a whole bale of 
Mackinaw blankets, as he had once done in the far west 
when smitten by an ague, but the warmth was as imper-. 
ceptible in the former case as in the latter. 

The night wore on, to the extent of two or three thou- 
sand hours, and reduced the chilling Cook at last to a 
single desire : — he wished that before he froze to death 
he might have a thermometer, a pencil and paper, and 
record for the benefit of coming canoeists this terrible 
temperature — if, indeed, the thermometer could indicate 
it before the mercury itself would freeze. 

Then came that mysterious hour of the night in which 
night, itself still regnant, trembles at the prospect of its own 
dissolution. It was the hour in which sick men who are fore- 
doomed to die generally accept the inevitable : it was also 
the hour in which the Commodore, in his home capacity 
of Editor, always left the office of the " Daily Tocsin," and 
walked home with a sedative cigar for company. The 
force of habit being strong in the Commodore, he rustled 
uneasily under his blankets, and finally emerged from the 
tent, filling a pipe as he came. 






THE ROCHEFORT WATER-LOGGED. 41 

" Just the man !" exclaimed the Cook. "/ want to 
smoke, but I hadn't the heart to awake any one to beg a 
dry match." 

Both pipes lighted, the Cook remarked, 

" D-d-don't you think it would be more cheerful to 
smoke by a f-f— fire?'' 

And the Commodore, with a very perceptible flavor 
of irony in his tones, replied, 

" I d-d-dont know but I d-d-do." 

Five minutes sufficed in which to make a roaring fire: 
then the Cook scraped up a ridge of sand a few feet from 
the blaze, allowed it to heat, stretched himself against it 
and was asleep in an instant. An experienced seaman, 
however, when in a position of grave responsibility, never 
allows himself entire freedom from care. Hence in the 
present instance the sailor-like instincts acquired by the 
Commodore during long years of sedentary life, caused 
him some anxiety as he once more lay down in the tent. 
The wind had freshened from the southward, and he 
deemed it his duty to arouse the Vice whose canoe, as 
has been stated, was anchored off a lee shore while the 
rest were securely sheltered behind a point. The reply 
elicited by his appeal was somnolent rather than respect- 
ful, and the Commodore resolving upon disciplinary meas- 
ures in the morning, once more arose and sought the 
beach. Professional instinct, had not been at fault. There 
was the Rochefort full of water, rolling heavily in the 
trough of the sea, and banging her cedar broadside 



42 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

against the stony shore. With that devotion to the 
service characteristic of the true sailor, the commanding 
officer laid aside at once his trovvsers and the dignity of 
his station, and rescued, at the risk of wetting his remain- 
ing garment, the vessel which the inexperience of a sub- 
ordinate had imperiled. In this connection it may be 
well to remark that a stone which weighs twelve pounds 
out of the water weighs only about seven beneath its 
surface. Ignorance of this simple mechanical principle 
led a well-meaning and occasionally meritorious officer 
into the error of using such a stone for an anchor. 

Still the Cook slept when the Commodore returned 
from his labor of love, and crept shiveringly into his 
blankets. 

The hours passed, the sun arose and beat upon the 
Cook's face, and still he slept. By the time the occupants 
of the tent awoke the sun had performed his toilet so 
thoroughly that not a dewdrop remained visible. But 
still the Cook slept, and when the Vice saw him he took 
in the situation at a glance, and remarked : 

" Methinks I remember a cruise in which the Alder- 
man was temporarily without blankets." 

The Vice performed his ablutions, shaved himself, 
eyed the fire, walked impatiently around the Cook, and 
finally exclaimed : 

" Boys, I'm starving, but it's too bad to rouse that 
tired wretch. I'll take his place this morning. He does 
well enough as a cook, but he has some sillv notions that 



THE VICE'S COFFEE POT. 



43 



I'd like to reason him out of. He always cooks with hot 
coals ; now I propose to show him that a bright blaze is 
just as useful, and far sooner made ready. Besides I am 




The Vice's Coffee Pot before. 

the proud owner of a utensil which is destined to revolu- 
tionize the art of coffee-making." The others were fain 
to acquiesce in this arrangement, but the Purser, with 
characteristic prudence, put some water to boil in the 
regular way. The Statesman meanwhile burrowed among 
his stores and shortly appeared bearing the brown paper 
parcel which had excited curiosity at the beginning of 
the voyage. Tearing off the paper he exhibited a struct- 
ure of the general appearance depicted. 

" Here," said he, rapidly resolving it into its compo- 
nent parts, " is the receptacle for the coffee. And you 
fill this part — no, this one — with water. Then you put it 
on the fire. As soon as it boils you turn it bottom up. 
Let's see — no, it was bottom up before ; you turn it right 



44 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



side up and there you are. Coffee strained, not boiled." 
This last with a contemptuous glance at the sleeping 
cook. 

The Vice piled wood upon the fire, and while it blazed 
up fiercely he hastily filled the wonderful coffee-pot half 
full of water, and set it in the midst of the flames. Five 
minutes later the Cook awoke from a dream of hearing a 
tin peddler's wagon upset on a stone pavement. Rubbing 
his eyes he beheld the Vice, with a long hooked stick, 




The Vice's Coffee Pot after. 

rescuing various pieces of tin from the fire, and dropping 
them upon a boulder near by.* The flame had resolved 
the wonderful coffee-pot into its dozen or more original 
fragments, and as the Vice made a final dive for the spout- 
less, handleless, topless vessel, the Cook drawled: 

" Some people cook over coals, and some prefer a 
blaze." 

" Why," spluttered the Vice, as he blew upon a burned 

* In order to protect themselves against prosecution for libel the authors 
would state that the coffee-pot in question is an admirable one under proper 
conditions. Such conditions, however, are not afforded by an open fire of 
drift-wood. 



AN UNPROFESSIONAL BREAKFAST. 45 

finger, " the Alderman always made coffee over a 
blaze." 

" Then he did it in a coffee-pot with a bail which 
hooked on, instead of being fastened by solder. And 
besides he suspended it over the fire after this fashion." 

The Vice walked away to his boat in disgust, while the 
rest seated themselves about the unprofessional breakfast 
which had been made ready. Presently he sauntered 
boldly among them with what he was pleased to term a 
coffee-cup in hand, looking rather red in the face, but 
sturdily demanding his breakfast. 

u Some of that potted salmon, Purser. Pass us the 
bread, Commodore. I say, Cook, isn't that coffee ready 
yet ? Commodore, this thing won't work. If fellows are 
going to shirk their share of the drudgery, the service will 
go to the dogs. What I want is my coffee, and I want it 
NOW, do you hear, Cook?" 

But the Cook was magnanimous, for he had a coffee- 
pot of his own, and though the Vice contended that the 
coffee made therein had not the aroma peculiar to that 
made in the one which he had loved, and lost, he revealed 
the hollowness of his plea, (or his stomach) by drinking 
twice as much as any one else did. 

The Flag officer deemed the moment a fitting one to 
administer, firmly but kindly, a merited rebuke to the sub- 
ordinate whose heedlessness had on the preceding night 
imperilled the safety of a valuable vessel. On being asked 
if he had anything to say in his own defence, the dis- 



46 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

graced officer replied with unblushing effrontery that he 
was warm and comfortable when the Commodore waked 
him ; he was sleepy, and he knew the Commodore would 




A Sporhungan. 

get up and do what had to be done anyhow, and he didn't 
want to get up in the cold and — 

Here the Commodore broke in with an authoritative 
" Silence, Sir," but as the rest of the fleet went off in con- 
vulsions of irreverent laughter, he thought it best to let 
the matter drop. 

Saturday is a good day to begin a canoe-cruise. The 
unwonted exercise induces weariness which the first.night 
in camp does not wholly remove, so that a day of rest 
and a second night of more refreshing sleep, are usually 
acceptable to all. Opposite is what the voyagers 
looked at from their camp, throughout that peaceful 
Sunday. 

At this camp too, the regular details were permanently 



IN POSITION. 



47 



and formally arranged. The Scribbler having confirmed 
the Commodore's judgment, and evinced a decided genius 
for cookery, consented to serve permanently as dief, the 
rest taking turns on successive days as foragers, wood- 
cutters, and dish-washers. 




III. 

THE COOK STUDIES NAVIGATION. 

AS the squadron turned out and took its matutinal 
swim, soon after sunrise, the lake was dimpled by a 
favorable breeze, and after breakfast orders were issued 
to make sail. 

" I've got to make a spar first, Commodore," ex- 
claimed the Cook. " my main boom is gone, or hasn't 
come, I don't know which." 

" Find another at once," said the commanding officer, 
and the Cook seized the hatchet, and started into the 
timber, returning presently with an elm pole weighing 
twenty pounds, nearly half the weight of his boat, his 
original boom having been a piece of bamboo weigh- 
ing a scant half-pound. By dint of hard work with 
hatchet and knife, he worked this log into a makeshift for 
a boom. 

" I wonder," remarked the Cook, as he dropped his 
knife for a moment, and caressed the blistered palms of 
his hands, " why all you fellows insist on having decks. 
I don't wonder that you two Chrysalids," referring to the 
Vice and the Purser, whose boats were of that famous 
model, " I don't wonder that you two Chrysalids do it, for 
3 



50 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



the builder of your boats stupidly decked them before 
you bought them, but the Commodore, who, like me, was 
sensible enough to buy a Red Lake-boat, wasn't satisfied 
to leave it free and open as he found it, but has gone and 




The Cook selects a Boom. (Below is the one that was lost.) 

stretched rubber-cloth over it fore and aft. It's as bad 
as sailing in a coffin, to sail in any of them." 

" I'd as lieve sail in a coffin as in a bath-tub," replied 
the Vice, who, having commanded a blockade-runner 
during the late unpleasantness, had a natural fondness for 
tight decks and plenty of them. 

" A well-covered bath-tub," remarked the Commo- 
dore, " is fully as sea-worthy as a mahogany- topped cof- 
fin, and far less suggestive of canoeing on the Styx. But 
for a cover of some sort, I confess an affection. It keeps 
things dry ; if a man capsizes — " 



ALL UNDER SAIL. 5 1 

" A canoeist has no business to capsize," interrupted 
the Cook, who had learned canoeing on a Western river, 
and in a " dug out," which could only be turned over by 
the united efforts of at least two men, " and a canoeist has 
no right to have ' things ' lying so loosely as to drop out." 

At length the squadron set sail. The wind had fresh- 
ened, and the white caps were as numerous and agitated 
as in a large female seminary during a night alarm of fire. 
The Commodore, the Vice and the Purser were all ex- 
perienced sailors, so they shortened sail, but the Cook, 
having never handled a boat under sail before, possessed 
his soul of the nautical bliss that comes of ignorance. 
Shorten sail ? He would show those fellows what a fear- 
less sailor and a good boat could do, when the wind was 
disposed to aid them. The Cook experimented nerv- 
ously for a few moments to learn where the sail should 
really be to catch the most wind, but when he learned he 
made full use of his knowledge, and his boat, the Cherub, 
seemed literally to fly. It passed the Becky Sharp, (the 
flag-ship) so rapidly that the Cook had not time to study 
the Commodore's face long enough to know how that 
official liked it ; it passed the Rochefort, causing the Vice 
to scowl as if the unoffending Cherub were a member of 
the party which the whilom statesman hated ; it threw 
for an instant the shadow of its great white mainsail on 
the Arethusela, darkening the blonde complexion and 
golden locks of the Artist-Purser. 

Then the Cook began to enjoy his boat and himself. 



52 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

A pistol which he had in his pocket to be ready for a shot 
at some passing water-bird, chafed him somewhat, and he 
laid it in the bottom of the boat, where it would be 
equally handy and less troublesome. He had heard that 
a canoeist should always be barefooted, so he kicked off 
his shoes. He pitied his comrades who sat upon the hard 
bottoms of their boats as they sailed, while he sat upon 
the many folds of a large tent. All the inner lines of his 
beautiful canoe were before his eye, instead of being hid- 
den by decks, as those of his companions were — if, in- 
deed, there were any beautiful lines any where about 
their boats. 

The Cook was happy ; he fastened the sheet of his 
mainsail to a cleat, softly whistling, as he did so, " A 
Life on the Ocean Wave," neither thinking nor caring 
that the ocean was really several hundred miles away. 
He was astonished and delighted that sailing was so easy 
an art to acquire, but pshaw — sailors, like poets, are born, 
not made. Had not one of his ancestors sailed with 
Drake when that hero interfered with the sailing direc- 
tions that had been delivered to the Spanish Armada ? 
What might he not have achieved himself, had cruel fate 
not ordained that ink should be his only fluid element ? 
Just here the Cherub made such astonishing speed that 
the Cook determined roughly to " time " his boat, so he 
estimated a mile of distance by the trees upon the shore, 
opened his watch and laid it in the bottom of the boat, 
before his eyes. 



THE COOK JIBES. 53 

But Solomon said that pride must have a fall, and 
when there is any unpleasant saying of Scripture to be ful- 
filled, a conceited canoeist is as good as any one else that 
can be selected for the purpose. The squadron was 
approaching a point beyond which its course would be 
changed. The Commodore shouted " Ready about ! " 
and the Cook's self-confidence disappeared as rapidly as 
if it had been the conscience of a congressman after an 
interview with a " subsidy " lobbyist. " Jibe ! " shouted 
the Commodore. The Cook, almost in despair, looked 
astern, to see what the others did. He saw their masts 
straighten, their sails flap irresolutely for a moment, and 
then fill on the opposite side. How was it done ? Acci- 
dent came to the Cook's rescue : a wretched steersman 
at best, he had almost forgotten his helm as he looked 
astern, and an unintentional turn of the wrist of his steer- 
ing hand turned the boat's head from the wind. Around 
came the new boom ; the Cook had never before seen a 
boom come around on his own boat, and he had no idea 
of how close the same would come to the plane occupied 
by his own head. But the time occupied by an industrious 
boom in jibing is not sufficient for prolonged meditation, 
and while the Cook was wondering what to do, the boom 
attended faithfully to its own business. The elasticity of a 
green elm log is an unknown quantity ; the Cook's dome 
of thought was equally inelastic, so the Cook soon heard 
a heavy thud, as when one throws a mighty stone at a 
well-laden chestnut tree. Then the Cook heard a splash, 



54 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

and he was not allowed to remain in doubt as to the 
object which caused it. All the terrible stories he had 
heard about men who had been carried down by the 
sails and rigging of capsizing boats came hurrying into 
his mind, and he swam so vigorously to escape a similar 
fate, that his boat had time to turn leisurely over and 
adjust itself to its new condition before he dared to 
pause in his mad career. (See Frontispiece^) 

Then the Cook swam to his boat, and resting an elbow 
upon her keel, gazed pensively around him. Something 
that seemed to be a peculiarly-shaped dark fish, a little 
way below the surface in front of him, proved to be 
the slowly sinking form of one of his shoes, going to 
join its mate. A black bundle, consisting of most of the 
Cook's personal effects wrapped in a rubber-blanket, was 
rescued by the Commodore just as it seemed discouraged 
by the difficulty it experienced in floating. The Cook's 
hat, one of the paddles, a covered tin pail containing 
butter, a worthless bit or two of board, and sundry other 
articles of little value, were picked up by other members 
of the expedition, but the indisposition of watches, pistols, 
and even wet tents to wander aimlessly about on the 
bosom of a lake is known to all students of comparative 
specific gravities. The Cook groped for the painter of 
his own boat ; his other hand he rested upon the stern 
of the flagship, and thus the demoralized couple reached 
the shore. The remainder of the squadron had already 
disembarked, and the Purser made haste to extend the 



MEMORY TURNS TO THE PURSE. 55 

hospitalities of a private flask, but he robbed the draught 
of its flavor by asking, as he passed it, 

" Shall I explain to you why canoes are usually- 
decked ? " 

And the Cook was so absorbed in contemplation of 
his bare feet, that he did not even look up. At length he 
inquired as to the depth of the lake ; the Vice obligingly 
paddled to the scene of the disaster, took soundings, and 
reported fifty feet. To go through fifty feet of water to 
cover two feet not over dry was not to be thought of, but 
what hope was there of replacing lost shoes in a wilder- 
ness — even when Acadia was reached, the natives prob- 
ably made and wore only wooden sabots. 

The overturned boat was righted, and the Cook 
emptied his portmonnaie and laid his money on a shel- 
tered rock to dry, while he should change his clothing and 
restore his boat. Then the Commodore, consulting a 
chart, discovered that there was a village only ten miles 
distant on the border of the lake, and it was large enough 
to justify a hope of shoes : the squadron should put in 
there. The delighted Cook proposed an immediate start, 
particularly as a force of small boys was approaching. 
The village was reached, the Cook found a pair of shoes, 
but on attempting to pay for them he remembered hav- 
ing left his money on a stone to dry. And that stone 
was ten miles away, it could only be reached by paddling 
against a head wind, and when last seen the ground con- 
taining the stone was occupied in force by boys ! The 



56 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

Cook, as he walked back to his boat, was in a savage frame 
of mind, and wanted to hurt somebody or something, 
but no one would laugh at him, or offer sympathy 
Suddenly his eye fell upon the extempore boom ; a 
moment later and that faithful spar which had done 
only its honest duty, sank deeply in the lake. The Cook's 
credit was good, however, and he succeeded in borrow- 
ing from the Statesman enough money to pay for the 
shoes and a blanket, and buy a bamboo fishing-pole from 
a casual youth who angled on the adjacent wharf. This 
was speedily converted into a boom of proper size and 
weight. 

" The rest of us may as well go booming, too," re- 
marked the Commodore, who had been strongly stimu- 
lated by the exhibition of spirit in which the Cook had in- 
dulged. By this time there had gathered about the 
squadron quite a crowd. It was, however/ a crowd of 
great conservatism ; each man seemed to have in his 
pocket a valuable something, which required the unre- 
mitting contact of his hands, as well as something in his 
mouth which would escape were he to part his lips. Oc- 
casionally, however, one would release a hand long 
enough to test the weight of the Vice's canoe, which 
was the only one that had been drawn entirely out of the 
water, and as each of the sixty odd men present did this 
at least once, gravely uttering, as he did so, the mono- 
syllable "Gosh!" the Vice was extremely delighted. 
The expletive recalled the days of his innocent youth. 



53 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



" It is plain to see," said he, " that living right on the 
edge of monarchical institutions as they do, these poor 
fellows have never before seen a boat of any lightness 
and grace." 

" Don't forget, please," remarked the (Took, " that my 
canoe, which is lighter and faster than yours, was made 
in Canada." 

Having repaired damages, the squadron proceeded, 
paddling side by side along the shore in search of favor- 
able camping ground. 

"How does the Alderman toggle his boom, Vice?" 
asked the Purser, who during the day had his own private 




The Vice's Boom Toggle. 

troubles with that important spar, and was beginning to 
have some misgivings as to rig. 

" Same as I do mine, with a brass collar for the mast, 
and a screw and bolt arrangement to make the boom fast. 
See?" And the Vice exhibited his boom, where it was 
attached to the mast. 

" That's just like mine," said the Purser, " and I don't 
altogether like it. I believe simple jaws and lashing, such 
as you see on any sail-boat, are more convenient." 



SPRITS NOT BOOMS. 



59 



11 No true canoeist will sacrifice style, merely for con- 
venience," replied the Vice sententiously. " Now, there 
is more style about a Chrysalid than about a Red Laker, 
and that more than compensates for their inferior speed, 
and carrying capacity, and so on. Every man should have 
his boom rigged in the most complicated manner. Now 




l^-^l/11/IJJliiiM..l.jillniii 



I I I 

The Commodore's Sprit 

look at the Cook, and the Commodore. See their booms, 
(The Commodore accommodatingly held up the foot of 
his mast for inspection,) or sprits rather. They are not 
properly booms. Now, that rubber band passed through 
a ring, and over a cross-head or a notch on the end of the 
sprit, undoubtedly keeps a light sail flatter than any other 
contrivance I know of, but there's nothing ship-shape 
about it. 'Twouldn't be allowed for a moment in the 



60 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

navy. You want something that it takes some skill to 
manage." 

" Thanks," said the Purser, " I see the thing in its 
true light now," and he went to work when camp was 
reached and fitted jaws to his boom, and even threatened 
to adopt the leg-of-mutton sprit-sail before he went 
cruising again. 

" I don't see," commented the Cook, " why the india- 
rubber arrangement should not be adapted to a boom as 
well as a sprit. It only requires a little ingenuity, and 
would keep the sail quite as flat as does your present 
rig." 

Rounding a promontory the fleet sighted a wooded 
island three-quarters of a mile from shore, and as such an 
island is for several reasons preferable to the main land 
for camping, they made for it at once and found it all 
that their fancy had painted. The fleet with one excep- 
tion was hauled upon the beach, but the Vice, anxious 
to retrieve his reputation for seamanship, made fast the 
painter of the Rochefort to a stone which he could hardly 
lift and hove her short under the lee of the point. The 
flag-officer silently noticed these preparations, but said 
nothing, resolved not to interfere again between the 
Rochefort and her commander. 

Here again it was found that former generations of 
campers-out had sojourned, leaving their lean-to, scientifi- 
cally constructed of poles and bark, standing for the ac- 
commodation of posterity. As the sun sank black bass 



62 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

began to break the glassy surface of the lake in search of 
their evening meal. 

" Would that the Alderman were here," remarked the 
Vice, as he watched the circles widen on the water, and 
heard the inspiriting splash as the fish flashed up in the 
sun's rays, " he would catch us a string of bass and show 
the cook how to fry them, in less than half an hour." 

But the Commodore had been putting his rod to- 
gether, and having in the course of the day killed a large 
bull- frog, he now lashed a portion of its hind leg to a hook 
with fine thread and quietly launching the flag-ship, stood 
up in her amidships and made a cast as far out toward 
the feeding ground as possible. A vigorous pull re- 
warded his effort and almost as soon as the Alderman 
could have done it he had two thumping bass and a 
good sized chub, or dace, which the Purser and Vice 
cleaned and the Cook fried to a turn for supper. 

" The Alderman would not have stood up in his boat 
to catch these fish," said the Vice with a crisp " second cut 
from the tail " on his plate, " that kind of thing isn't 
regular." 

" No ; it would be decidedly irregular in some boats," 
remarked the Cook. 

"I'll bet you cigars for the crowd — my choice ones, 
that I've preserved carefully in my water-tight, — that I 
can throw a line from a Chrysalid." 

" Done." 

The Arethusela had nothing aboard, so the Vice bor- 



|l lii^il! ill,' J M 'I i 

ll'll if.lWlLI.iil ?! 



l!.fll!^a.^Ji^ 




64 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

rowed her and the Commodore's rod,. and pushed out a 
few yards from the beach. Then rising gingerly to his 
feet he made one or two gentle casts with great circum- 
spection and was about to claim his wager, but thinking 
to perfect his claim, made a third cast, which was a thought 
too vigorous. {Result shown on page 65.) 

The flag ship was still afloat, and the Commodore be- 
ing anxious about his rod, sprang aboard and pushed off 
to the rescue, but the Vice sternly waved him back. 

" You may take your rod, if you like," said he, 
" though I could manage that too well enough, but I'll 
show you another point of superiority in a Chrysalid." 

The Commodore took the rod and backed off to a 
respectful distance. The Arethusela had righted herself 
instantly after discharging her occupant, and floated full 
of water, but still buoyant from the air in her large water- 
tight compartments. The Vice picked up his paddle, and 
put it aboard and then swam to the stern, which he 
grasped with both hands, and managed by a sudden and 
judicious effort to mount. 

Then, hitching carefully along, leap-frog fashion, he 
was soon seated amidships, bailing the water out wjth his 
hat, the canoe still floating with considerable buoyancy. 

"That is well done," was the general verdict. "A 
Chrysalid's water-tights are more efficient than those of 
a Red Laker provided she has any to bless herself withal." 

" I want to take a bath," said the Commodore, " be- 
fore turning in, and as a long enough time has now passed 



66 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



since supper to reasonably warrant exemption from con- 
gestion, I think I will test my water-tights if the Vice 
will permit me so to denominate the bags which serve in 




Aquatic Leap-frog . 

that capacity on board the flag ship. At any rate, I will 
prove to you that I can climb aboard a Red Laker with- 
out upsetting. I take precautions, you see, against wet- 
ting my toggery." 

So saying the Commodore stripped, embarked, and 
when in deep water jumped overboard, climbing on board 
just as the Vice had done, and with about the same ease. 
Then he sat on the gunwale and upset his boat, filling her 
with water. She floated, but by no means so buoyantly 
as had the Arethusela, and the task of climbing on board 
was somewhat more critical as the power of flotation 
was so much less. However, the water being perfectly 
smooth, it was accomplished, and it is probable that the 
Commodore could have bailed her out without going 
ashore, if he had given time enough to the operation, and 
darkness had not come on. As it was, he prudently and 
laboriously paddled the water-logged flag ship ashore, 



AQUATIC LEAP-FROG. 6j 

where ail hands performed their evening toilettes, and sat 
down around the camp fire to enjoy cigars, which the Vice 
had promptly handed over to the Cook, remarking that 
he did so under protest and stipulating that no precedent 
should thereby be established : " For," said he, " I laid a 
wager that I could throw a line while standing in the 
boat, and no fair-minded man can say I didn't do it." 

With the moan of a rising gale in their ears, the 
members of the expedition soon dropped off to sleep. 




IV. 

THE WRECK OF THE ROCHEFORT. 

AT dawn the Purser arose and woke the camp with 
the blood-curdling cry, " The Rochefort is gone ! " 
The rest, as soon as they could rub their eyes open,, 
scanned the lake to leeward, but no trace of the missing 
canoe could be seen. The sky was grey with low driving 
clouds and the lake repeated the sombre hue, save when it 
broke into white before the southerly gale. 

Witli ill concealed reluctance the Commodore offered 
to lend his darling Becky to the bereaved Statesman, who 
protested that the loss of an election was as nothing in 
comparison with his present affliction. It must be ad- 
mitted, too, that his remarks as to going in a Red Laker 
to the rescue of a Chrysalid, were not altogether gracious. 
However, the Purser volunteered to go with him in search 
of the runaway, each man following one side of the lake 
which was here only about two miles wide. Under the 
shortest possible sail, then, they set out, each standing 
across the wind at first, so as to close in with the shore 
and then follow it down with the wind astern. They 
^nt merrily off riding the white caps like ducks, and 
^ to follow the dark wooded shores to the North. 



HIS SHIP SHE WAS A-WRACK. 



6 9 



Presently the Purser was observed to broach to, and after 
a short time he went ashore, unshipped his mast and pro- 
ceeded under paddle. It subsequently transpired that 
the sea wrenched off one of the " gudgeons " which held 
the rudder, and he was thereupon disabled for sailing 
purposes. The wind, however, was dead astern, and he 
progressed almost as easily and as fast as if he had not 
lost his helm. 

Meanwhile the Vice proceeded, anxiously scanning the 
coast, and at length had the pleasure of discovering the 






,w 




11 His Ship she was a- wrack." 

runaway some three miles down the lake, full of water, 
and with the sea, in dear old Robinson Crusoe's immor- 
tal words, " making a clean breach over her." That she 
was not stove into match-wood speaks well for her build- 
er's workmanship. She had carried her anchor with her 
all the way, having been hove so short that she gradually 
worked off the steep beach as the wind and sea rose, and 



70 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

had not even cable enough out to anchor her off the lee 
shore on which she finally brought up. 

As the Vice approached her, the buoyant Red-Laker 
rising cork-like with him on the white capped waves, he 
could not but be struck by the ship-shape appearance of 
the wreck. As has been intimated, the Vice is distin- 
guished for elaboration of equipment, and he had anchored 
his canoe the night before with her sails beautifully furled, 
and every strand of her multitudinous running rigging 
exactly in position. Now she looked for all the world like 
a miniature frigate cast away on a rocky coast, and the 
solitary spectator half expected to discover a crew of pig- 
mies clinging to her hatch-combings, as he drew near. 

The first thing to be done however, was to signal the 
Purser, who was coasting the opposite shore. To beach 
his borrowed boat with such a sea running, and where 
there was not any beach but boulders, was a problem 
which might easily have floored the greatest statesman, 
but the Commodore is glad to certify, that the task was 
accomplished with due regard for the welfare of the flag- 
ship, and this while the Vice's own beloved Rochefort was 
perhaps banging herself to pieces on the boulders. 

By dint of firing his revolver and waving his dandy, 
unshipped for the purpose, he succeeded in attracting the 
Purser's attention, and saw him change his course. This 
done, he waded to the stranded Rochefort, expecting to 
find her hopelessly broken amidships, but on getting her 
off the rocks, she floated as well as ever, showing that her 



THE RESCUE. 7 1 

compartments were still uninjured ; sOj anchoring her in 
waist-deep water, with her head to the sea, the Vice 
proceeded to bail. 

Why this amber hue of the water? Alas, the Vice 
carried the coffee of the fleet and it was not in a water- 
tight box. Why this slight saccharine quality ? Alas 
again, the Vice carried the expeditionary sugar. The 
coffee did not prove a total loss. Persistent boiling 
extracted from it a passable beverage, which served until 
a market town was reached, but the sugar was past re- 
demption. 

By the time the Purser had reached the scene of dis- 
aster the wreck was pumped dry, and careful inspection 
showed that she was wholly uninjured save as regards a 
few bruises. So the Vice unshipped her masts, and 
rightly judging that the Becky Sharp would be the easi- 
est to tow, made fast her painter, and started on the long 
paddle against the wind back to camp. 

To the rest of the fleet this escapade argued poor 
seamanship on the part of the Vice, but to him it only 
proved the moral obliquity of his boat. In order to 
shield his own reputation, he ruthlessly alleged against 
her the most abominable nautical crimes, and would 
never trust her alone thereafter, unless she was tied to a 
large tree or a huge boulder. 

The Purser, meanwhile, noting the shoreward trend 
of the waves, instituted a successful search for his lost 
rudder, which he found ashore in a quiet cove. On re- 



72 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

turning to camp, he and the Vice admitted that there are 
certain advantages connected with a steering oar, which 
do not belong to a rudder, and each resolved thereafter 
to carry a suitable row-lock, so as not to be entirely 
disabled for sailing in case of accidents. Nevertheless, 
while a rudder holds, it is certainly more convenient than 
a paddle to steer with, but at the same time it necessi- 
tates an awkward amount of stern-post, which renders the 
boat hard to turn, and has usually to be shipped and un- 
shipped in changing from sail to paddle. For this reason, 
the Vice is accustomed to remark, that it is always well 
to have another fellow at hand in a Red-Laker to render 
aid in emergencies. Of course it was necessary to dry 
the Rochefort before proceeding, and it was afternoon 
before the Purser had repaired his steering gear, and 
everything was in readiness. There is always enough to 
do however, so all hands busied themselves in sundry 
tinkerings until after dinner, when, as the sky had cleared 
and the wind had somewhat moderated, the order was 
given to make sail, and the pretty island was speedily left 
behind, the fleet skimming along the wooded shore like 
a flock of white sea gulls. 

Now whatever advantages a Chrysalid may possess 
over and above a Red-Laker, she is nowhere in point of 
speed on a free wind. Consequently the first division 
invariably ran away from the second, and was obliged 
every little while to lie by and wait for it to come up. 
After his first experience in jibing, the Cook had been 



PADDLES AND RUDDERS. 73 

content for awhile to trust to a spruce breeze, and indeed 
there had been since his overturn no favoring wind until 
now. He soon acquired commendable skill in laying a 
straight course. He no longer zig-zagged over the lake 
as at first. Evidently, however, something weighed upon 
his mind, for as with his companion boat he entered a bay 
to wait for the second division : 

" Commodore," said he. 

"Well?" 

" I say, what is tacking anyhow ? " 

" Why it's working to windward." 

" Yes, I know, but how do you do it ? " 

" O, I see. You don't understand the theory of sail- 
ing a boat. Well, I must own you're a plucky one. And 
you've done mighty well too." 

Then the Commodore made his companion lie to, 
while the flag-ship worked past him to windward by 
short tacks. The Cook with his usual aptitude soon 
caught the idea and satisfactorily put it in practice. 
Then, as the breeze was moderate, there followed 
lessons in "jibing" and "wearing," with explana- 
tions of the circumstances under which each was 
necessary. 

By the time the second division rounded the point, 
the Cook's spirits had risen, and he began once more to 
prate of his piratical ancestry who knew no home but the 
ocean. 

' ; What were you two benighted Red Lakers doing 
4 



74 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

in the bay this side of Black Point ?" asked the Vice as 
the party sat by the fire that evening. 

" Merely a little discussion as to merits of rig, and the 
best way of handling a boat, with practical illustrations," 
said the Cook, who clung frantically to the remnant of 
his reputation for seamanship, and trusted to the Commo- 
dore's magnanimity not to expose him. 

" O, that was it, eh ? And what conclusions did you 
reach with your Red Lake monstrosities ?" 

" We had plenty of time to reach any conclusions, 
and have them illustrated and published, and sell a dozen 
editions before' you came along," retorted the Cook. 

" We were trying experiments," said the Commodore 
adroitly, " in going about, and we concluded that the 
best way was to come up into the wind as sharp as you 
like, hauling in a little on the dandy sheet to help, and 
then as soon as the mainsail shivers, give her one or two 
strokes with the paddle, let go your dandy sheet, hold 
your boom over till the mainsail fills, and her head falls 
off, shift your paddle to the lee side and there you are." 

" Yes,", said the Vice, who is a devoted adherent of a 
"sliding gunter" rig with full boom and gaff, standing 
lug, dandy, jib and flying jib, as distinguished from the 
two leg-of-mutton sails carried by the Red Lakers. 
" Yes, there you are indeed with your steering paddle 
and other unseamanlike contrivances. Now let me show 
you how a Chrysalid goes about. We will suppose this 
log to be the canoe." 



HOW TO TACK SHIP. 75 

"Parallel exact, so far," broke in the Cook, "Go 
ahead." Taking no notice of the interruption the Vice 
proceeded, seating himself astride the log, 

11 We will suppose the canoe to be under full sail on 
the port tack, with everything drawing. Order is given 
1 ready about,' crew spring to stations. Helmsman gives 
her a good full, passes port tiller-rope over his shoulder, 
takes it in his teeth and has his paddle handy. Let go 
flying jib halyards, and in with your down haul. Let go 
main sheet, and if you get a chance, haul in a little on the 
dandy. Round with your helm. When the mainsail 
begins to shiver, top your boom or lift it clear while she 
swings. If she don't come round, help her with your 
paddle. Let go dandy sheet if you hauled in on it. Let 
go topping lift, slack away weather jib sheet as soon as 
she is pointed on starboard tack. Bowse in flying jib 
halyards, letting mainsail take care of itself, make all fast, 
haul in main sheet, and there you are all ship-shape." 

11 And hull down astern of the Red Lakers," added 
the Commodore. 

During this explanation the Vice had, after his own 
enthusiastic fashion, gone through all the motions, as he 
described them, and when he appealed to his auditors to 
know if it was not a far more artistic performance than 
that which the Commodore described, no one had a 
word to say. 

"Just tell us, Vice/' said the Cook, "how many ropes 
have you to attend to? " 



y6 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

" O there are only a few," responded the Vice, curious- 
ly enough not seeing the trap into which he was falling, 
" There are the dandy halyards, sheetand brail, that's three, 
main halyards — peak and throat — sheet, brail, and top- 
mast halyards, that's seven, jib halyards, down haul, out- 
haul and sheets, that's twelve. Flying jib ditto ditto, that's 
seventeen. Tiller ropes and painter, that's all, total 
twenty. Oh, yes, and there's the signal halyards, that's 
twenty-two, or twenty-three if you have a pair on your 
topmast." 

" He does get ahead of us, that's a fact, Commodore," 
drawled the Cook. " Now I can only make out two hal- 
yards, two sheets and a painter, five in all, unless I count 
my fish-line, and he has twenty-three. I give it up." 

"Yes," said the Vice musingly, "when you are in a 
Chrysalid canoe, properly rigged, you have a sense of 
completeness, not to be attained elsewhere." Then sud- 
denly changing the subject: 

" I thought," said he, as he helped himself to an eighth 
slice of toast, " that I was lucky when the Cook kindly 
volunteered to carry my tenlfas a seat, and thus relieve my 
boat from a certain amount of weight, but now I am won- 
dering under what cover this expedition will sleep to- 
night." It so happened that the expedition had not yet 
felt the loss of their tent, having at the different camps 
chanced upon lean-tos and other adequate substitutes. 

" When you lack information on any matter connected 
with canoeing," said the Cook, " come to me." The Cook 



A SET OF RIGGING. 



77 



emptied his third cup (pint) of coffee, unrolled a pack in 
his boat, and displayed a piece of stout sheeting, five 
yards long and two and three-quarter yards wide, with 
four rope loops at each end for tent pins, and a row of 
button-holes, a foot apart, along each edge. He also dis- 





k3 ■ CT C^ *TD TO C7 



> i > ) > \ 



±_! ! I L 



The Cook's Tent. 

played two triangular pieces of the same material, at the 
bases of each of which were three loops for pins, and along 
the other two sides a row of buttons. 

" Button these together properly," said he, " set the 
whole affair up on poles, and cross pole, or across a rope 
strung tightly between two trees, and you have a larger 
and better ventilated tent than the one I left in the lake ; 



78 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

it won't weigh half as much, either. Except in very cold 
weather or driving rain, the end pieces will not be neces- 




The Cook's Teat. 

sary. Indeed, it can be set over a canoe, so as to cover 
all the open portion of the boat." 

The whole supper table gazed admiringly, until the 
Commodore asked, 

" Why have the holes, instead of the buttons, on the 
main piece." 

" So that you may affix the ends either from the in- 
side or outside. The latter is the easier way, but oc- 
casionally the wind blowing from the front, will come in 
very freely between the fastenings outside, so that the 
canoeist who drops asleep with a head full of pjeasant 
dreams, will awake with a head full of neuralgia." 

" And if it rains, what is to prevent this tent from leak- 
ing like a sieve, and distributing shower baths impartially 
among the clean and the unclean?" 

"Two things — a steep pitch or a neat coat of oil," 
said the Cook. 



THE cook's tent. 79 

" The water-proof of the pudding is in the eating," 
remarked the Commodore, who had begun to yawn. 
" Set the tent at once." 

The tent was set on a line between two trees, the 
front remaining open, and half an hour later there lay 
within it four men who were beginning fully to realize 
how delicious weariness may become, when it is earned 
by the body instead of the brain. With sand for 
matresses, and a rubber blanket each for sheets, they 
slept more soundly than they had ever done at home 
upon springs and between linen. The only visitations 
they experienced were heavenly ones. Venus glided past 
the open front, but saw no one there over whom her fas- 
tidious gaze cared to linger. Saturn peeped suspiciously 
in, but passed on contentedly, assured that in the pres- 
ence of such sound sleepers his rings were as safe as if 
they were Indian Rings at Washington. Mars glared in 
with his great red face, but the quartette had been all 
day on the water, under an unfamiliar sun, so there were 
four fiery faces to Mars' one, and the blazing old fellow 
went off in a huff and got behind a little cloud to hide his 
mortification. 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 

IF the reader has watched with any interest, the devel- 
opment of what may perhaps without offence be 
termed canoebial character, he must have been pained to- 
observe that however fair minded the average canoeist 
may be in other respects, neither his judgment nor his 
statements can be trusted where his own boat is con- 
cerned. Of this fact each member of the expedition be- 
came convinced in the course of the first day out, and the 
authors deem it their duty to warn the public against in- 
discriminate belief in the virtues ascribed to different 
canoes by their respective owners.* The Statesman, who 
has associated to some extent with sporting men, says, 
that he has observed a like trait in owners of horses, does 



Commodore 
* Note. — The Cook - wishes it to be understood that all his state- 
Becky Sharp 
ments regarding the Cherub are strictly truthful, but really when 

Cook Cherub 

Commodor e says that the -Eteek y Sharp — Well, space will not admit of 
specifications. 

Hurray ! I had the last look at that proof. 

Commodore. 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 8 1 

and yachts, and all know that every mother discovers 
in her own children beauties and virtues which no other 
living being is able to perceive. Why then, should 
a trait which is beautiful in one case be scoffed at in 
another? The authors hold that a sublime faith in one's 
own canoe, is one of the noblest sentiments that can ani- 
mate the human breast. 

Morning opened with the usual brisk breeze ruffling 
the lake from the south, and the fleet made all prep- 
arations to continue the voyage under sail. Hardly, 
however, were they clear of the land when the wind fell 
suddenly, and in a wonderfully short space of time the 
lake was like a mill pond. An occasional puff of wind 
however, justified keeping sails set. and so alternating from 
paddle to canvas, a broad expanse was passed, and the 
"narrows" neared where mountains seemed trying to 
shoulder one another into the lake, and where, as if they 
had fallen off in the scuffle, several rocky, wood-crowned 
islands floated double as it were, on the glassy water. By 
the time the shadow of the woods was reached, all hands 
were glad to stop until the declining sun should make 
motion a little more endurable, so a cool and shady nook 
was selected where several hours were spent in meditative 
contemplation of as lovely a panorama as ever rested the 
eyes of leisurely voyagers. 

This laisser alter fashion of cruising is the only really 
enjoyable plan. Your restless spirits will push on and 
make their twenty-five miles a day, rain or shine, but 
4" 



82 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

your philosopher is content it may be with five or six, 
and recks not if he be obliged to cut his journey short at 
its latter end. So the hours drifted slowly by until the 
mountains threw their shadows across the lake, and a 
gentle breeze once more invited action. 

It took only an hour or two to run out from the shadow 
of the mountain range, and see stretching out toward the 
north the low lying hills which characterize the broad St. 
Lawrence Valley, for thitherward tend in the Canadas 
all waters that run down hill. The lake, too, spread out 
again, its edges bordered by extensive shallows whereon 
grew tall graceful bulrushes, each of which rose six or 
eight feet or more above the water, tapering beautifully 
and smoothly from near an inch in diameter at the base, 
to a needle-like point at the top. Sometimes when the 
wind was fresh, the cruisers would run in among them. 
There was something peculiarly fascinating in thus flying 
through vast green stretches of rustling, bending reeds. 
The breeze was almost wholly checked near the water, 
but the peaks of the sails caught it above the supple 
rushes, and the canoes went whistling through them, 
their sharp bows dividing the green stems as they^flew 
along, and a broad swath bowing under the booms as 
they swung out to leeward. 

Now and then a startled marsh hen, or wild fowl 
of some sort, would rise almost from under the gunwales 
and go scuttling off, frightened half to death at the un- 
wonted invasion of her retreat. The solitude was perfect. 



AMONG THE RUSHES. 



83 



The canoeists could see nothing of one another when sep- 
arated by a few yards, Any one might have upset and 




been left far behind, before the rest could have discovered 
his loss, and then the chance of ever finding him would 
have been as one to a hundred. However the water was 



84 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

only two or three feet deep, so that there was no actual 
danger. Along such tracts as this the fleet coasted this af- 
ternoon, and there was no apparent prospect of getting 
beyond,- or through the reeds to find a camp. The lake 
was wide, and it was not expedient to cross it so near 
night-fall, and with a threatening sky. So sails were 
prudently furled and the four cruisers paddled along 
hoping to find, somewhere, an opening through which 
the land could be reached. The sky grew dark. Rain 
began to plash around, and suddenly night shut down, 
with a cold driving mist and not a glimmer of light to 
show the bearings, save an occasional momentary gleam 
from one of the little light-houses away off toward the 
north. The fleet had drawn out into the lake in order to 
get a better sight at the coast line, and here it rode with 
the heaving water all around, and no means of steering to 
a place of safety. The Vice had taken the bearings with 
his compass, but now as fast as a lantern was lighted to 
steer by, the wind blew it out, so there was nothing for it 
but keep together, and steer by the sea. After a some- 
what anxious time, with startling suddenness, a long 
dark wall seemed to rise through the rain and drive 
straight forward over the lake. " Hold all " was the 
word for a moment, but there was no roar of surf, only 
a whistling murmur as of a million wings. Then the 
dark wall opened and the reeds were recognized as 
old friends. The course in which the fleet was heading, 
had been entirely problematical, for the wind was very 



THE ROB ROY CUISINE. 85 

gusty and variable, but it was certain that among the 
countless slender stems was safety from the fiercest gale 
that ever blew. Pushing inward for a hundred yards or 
so, the boats were moored side by side, to sheaves of 
reeds, and their occupants proceeded to make themselves 
as comfortable as was possible under the circumstances, 
feeling, as the Cook remarked, better able than ever be- 
fore to appreciate the early experiences of Moses. 

Now, if ever, was the time to try the Purser's " Rob 
Roy cuisine." He had imported it at great outlay of 
treasure from England and had repeatedly explained its 
beauties, but having received it just on the eve of depart- 
ure from New York, he had never practically tested its 
virtues, and the professional prejudices of the Cook were 
so obstinately in favor of a wood fire, that he could never 
be persuaded to use a substitute. This <; cuisine " is a 
canoeing device invented by Mr. Macgregor, the father 
of modern canoeing. In external appearance it is a cir- 
cular box of plated copper. The main part of the box is 
used as a stew-pan, the top as a frying-pan. Moreover 
it contains, compactly fitted, an alcohol blast-lamp, and 
a multitude of little cooking contrivances which are 
admirable under circumstances like those in which the 
command was now placed. The Purser knew by heart the 
theoretical rules for managing the cuisine, but as has 
been stated, had never put them in practice. 

By the light of the little lanterns, he now took out the 
compact apparatus, opened it, filled the lamp, placed the 



86 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

standard on his forward deck, struck a match and applied 
it to the aperture. An innocent, bluish flame appeared, 
flickered for a moment, gathered strength, burst into a 
roar, shot upward three feet, shook itself, and prepared 
seemingly to consume the entire fleet. The Purser shrank 
backward as far as the narrow limits of his Chrysalid 
would allow, and glared helplessly at the vicious little 
engine, while he made abortive efforts to reduce it to 
decorum. The rest shipped their cables and hauled off, 
leaving him to his fate. 

" Kick it overboard." 

" Put your hat on it." 

" Blow it out." 

" Douse that glim," were some of the directions 
shouted, as muskrats skurried away into the darkness, 
and an owl and one or two bats swooped within the circle 
of light to see what was up. But the Purser remembered 
the bill he had paid, and resolved to risk his life rather 
than lose his " cuisine." 

As the roaring continued without abatement and with 
no disastrous results, it presently occurred to the Cook 
that here was a splendid heat going to waste. In a, trice 
he had the coffee pot in position, and in a marvelously 
short time more each man had a cup of hot coffee and a 
rude sandwich, cut hap-hazard from a half soaked loaf. 
The Rob Roy cuisine was unanimously voted a success, 
where for any reason an ordinary fire cannot be lighted. 

It is not pretended that a remarkably comfortable 



THE ROB ROY CUISINE. 



3: 



night followed this episode, but it was much better than 
driving aimlessly before the wind on the lake, and most 
of the party managed to get some sleep under their 
rubber blankets. At any rate the expedition was safe, 
and its members could listen without concern to the gale 
that roared a few feet over their heads, but touched 
them not. 




VI. 

MY NATIVE LAND, FAREWELL. 

MORNING dawned on a somewhat forlorn set of 
castaways. Every man was more or less damp, 
not to say wet, and the Vice with his bedraggled mutton- 
chop whiskers presented a peculiarly lugubrious appear- 
ance as he exasperated the Americans of the party by 
singing in the pitch of an Irish " keen "• the old Southern 
air " Maryland, My Maryland." 

The day promised to be a fair one, and by sunrise 
land had been reached, a fire built, dry clothes extracted 
from bags and water-tight compartments, and amiability 
once more asserted its mild and benignant sway over 
the depressed spirits of the command. This was the last 
day on the lake, although its lower end was on a small 
scale what the geographers might almost term a lacus- 
trine river. It was broad, that is, and at times nearly 
currentless. The nominal division between lake and 
river, however, was marked by a railway bridge and here 
it was understood the fleet must stop for official recogni- 
tion by her majesty's representative before crossing the 
Dominion line. The town lay low along the lake shore, 
and under the shelter of a wooden break-water the fleet 



THE BRITISH CONSUL. 89 

successfully effected a landing. The Commodore, after a 
few moments spent in making himself look as respectable 
as possible, set off on his official visit to the British 
Consulate. As he departed, the Vice asked if the needed 




But the Consul's brow was sad. 



stores were not to be purchased at this point, and before 
the expedition entered alien if not hostile waters. 

" Of course not," said the Cook. "You can buy bet- 
ter things for half the money in Canada." 

" Under a monarchical government," added the Purser. 



go CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

" That is undoubtedly the best plan," said the Com- 
modore. 

" Now look here. I'm a citizen of the United States," 
began the Vice, but the Purser, the Cook and the Com- 
modore fled in as many different directions and left him 
gesticulating solus upon the lonely shore. 

Presently the Commodore returned, followed shortly 
by the British Consul, who wished to assure himself that 
the squadron was not the advance guard of a Fenian ex- 
pedition. The Vice begged the right to receive him offi- 
cially in the Commodore's stead, and this favor being 
granted, the Consul was treated to half an hour of impas- 
sioned eloquence upon the rights of man. 

Meanwhile the breeze freshened and inflated itself to 
the size of a gale. Sloops and sail boats began to huddle 
together behind the little breakwater. The custom-house 
officer kindly offered to find a trusty guard for the canoes 
while their officers should go ashore, but the suggestion 
was declined with thanks. The Purser longed to be on 
British soil once more, the Vice was impatient to pat his 
own love of country on the back, by observing how much 
more miserably England's subjects exist than do those of 
his own happy land, the Commodore saw a fort in the dis- 
tance, which he and the Cook, having once been soldiers, 
were impatient to inspect, and the Cook pined for Canada, 
because he understood that the expeditionary butter pail 
might there be more cheaply refilled. Then the humane 
custom-house officer appealed to their sense of personal 



MISDIRECTED 'PATRIOTISM. 91 

safety, to their regard for the friends and creditors who 
might miss them if they were drowned, as they surely 
would be if they ventured out in such a storm. But the 
eye of Britannia was gazing upon the expedition from 
under the pith helmet of the Consul, so the Commodore 
roared, 

" Prepare to pass bridge ! Strike standing rigging ! 
Club and private signals fore and aft ! " 

"One minute, Commodore," shouted the Vice, who 
was dancing frantically about his boat, " where shall I dis- 
play the flag of Our Country ? " And the Vice reverently 
drew a small American flag from his bosom. 

" Display it in your pocket," replied the Commodore, 
rudely. " Forward ! " 

The Vice glared angrily, and got as far with a reply 
as to shout, " The Alderman always — " when the sight 
of the Cherub, the Arethusela and the Becky Sharp, 
dancing vivaciously on the big waves as their respective 
commanders plied their paddles rapidly, each with the 
intention of being the first to pass between the piles of the 
bridge and cross the Dominion line, caused the Vice to be- 
come inspired with the strongest sentiment acquired in the 
practice of statesmanship, namely, that nothing is so dis- 
astrous as to be left behind. The wind being directly 
abaft, there could be no possible doubt as to the fate of 
any commander or boat that might be dashed against 
the piles, particularly if he first got into the trough of the 
sea, and was cast up broadside. Each man braced him- 



92 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

self, leaning warily forward, each paddle performed won- 
drous and unexpected gyrations in air, and the colors 
vanished and darted up again like guidons in a cavalry 
fight. The commodorial helmet was blown off at this 
juncture, and in recovering it the flag ship had fallen 
some distance to the rear. Noting this with some disgust, 
the Commodore successfully executed a tactical movement 
which redounded greatly to his own glory. He shouted, 

" On, first division, deploy column. Squadron into line ; 
Guide Right, March ! (when manceuvering the squadron, 
the Commodore was everlastingly bothered by unbidden 
reminiscences of army tactics, which led him to enunciate 
orders applicable to the handling of a battalion instead of 
a fleet.) 

The effect of this command was to subject the squad- 
ron to the moral influence of discipline ; it was also to 
arrest for an instant the progress of the three boats which 
had distanced the Commodore's, for it was the flag-ship 
itself that was at the right, and upon this the squadron 
was to align itself. The principal effect was to give the 
wily Commodore the advantage of a boat's length. The 
Vice comprehended the trick only when it was top late, 
and the gnashing of his teeth could be distinctly heard 
above the whistling of the gale. But if distanced by 
trickery, he at least could console himself with patriot- 
ism, which is the last refuge of a Statesman.* Wildly he 
snatched the flag of his country from his pocket ; proudly 

* This was not the noun used by Dr. Johnson in his famous definition 
of patriotism. 



THE UNITED STATES GARRISON. 



93 



he waved it aloft as the nose of his canoe shot safely be- 
tween the piles. Gloriously the holy rag fluttered in the 
air for an instant ; then it wrapped a fold about a huge oak 
splinter of one of the under-timbers of the bridge, which 
nearly dislocated the Vice's shoulder in passing. Then 

U 




The United States Garrison. 

it concluded to remain where it was, and there it flutters 
to this day, to show to timorous mariners where the gal- 
lant Vice passed the bridge. As for the Vice himself, he 
dropped his paddle as he emerged, several lengths behind 
every body else, into the comparatively still water behind 
the bridge ; then he rubbed his agonized shoulder, and 
remarked, 

" Patriotism always did play the devil with Statesmen." 

The squadron now drifted under the granite walls of 

a United States fort, which commanded the approaches 



94 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



from Her Majesty's dominions. It bore the marks of 
neglect usually seen in an unoccupied and unfinished fort, 
but as the canoes drew near, signs- of life manifested 
themselves about the sally-port, and in less time than it 
takes to write it the entire garrison had embarked and 
was advancing to reconnoitre the approaching fleet. A 
parley ensued to the mutual edification of both parties, 




The Purser on British. Soil. 

and then the race for the Dominion line was resumed and 
easily won by the Purser, who paddled into water so shoal 
that the mud was visible just below the surface. He 
turned his boat on her centre as rapidly as a man could 
do with a canoe of the Chrysalid pattern ; then he arose 
and exclaimed, as the Vice and the Cook drew up, 

" Gentlemen, this is the first time in eight years that 
I've stood upon British soil. ' God save the Queen ! ' 
say I, and three cheers " — 

" You're not on British soil," interrupted the Vice; 



THE PURSER AS A PATRIOT. 95 

" you're on British water." But the Purser, unmindful 
of the interruption, had got as far as " hip, hip ! " — when 
the motion of ra'sing his hat destroyed his equilibrium, 
and a second later he was more than knee deep in a 
hummock of greyish-blue mud. 

" Now you're on British soil," continued the Vice ; 
" how do you like it as far as you've got ? " 

But the unchanged ecstasy of the Purser's patriotic 
face banished from the hearts of his companions any 
memories of '76 and 1812 that might have been hiding 
there, and the three cheers were heartily given with a 
supplementary "tiger," which was fully as noisy as if it 
had been one of the tigers native to the royal lady's own 
Indian Empire. 

The Purser extracted himself with some difficulty 
from his native clay, and all paddled to a shelving beach 
for the noontide rest, the Cook and the Commodore strik- 
ing up " God save the Queen," out of compliment to the 
Purser. The others joined in and the notes of the noble 
old anthem rang far acrcss the water until it was noticed 
that the Vice was patriotically roaring the words : 

" My Country 'tis of thee 
Sweet land of libertee," 

instead of the original. The other two Americans, 
although they were old United States soldiers, could not 
brook this gratuitous affront to their English companion, 
so they vigorously attacked the Vice with their paddles 
and spattered him till he was fain to cry '• quarter." 



g6 canoeing in kanuckia. 

Then the bows grated on the sand, and springing lightly 
ashore, the Vice mounted a boulder and delivered himself 
as follows, while the rest, dumb with amazement, sat in 
their boats to listen and applaud : 

* " Far be it from me fellow-citiz —mariners, to dis- 
turb the harmony of this joyful occasion. We are 
gathered to-night almost upon the very spot where Char- 
treaux and Champlain and Vanjohn and Rouget Noir 
fit the Injuns and made them knuckle to the Jesuit 
Fathers, with none to molest nor make them afraid. 
Here subsequently Lord Howe and Commodore Van- 
derbilt marched their squadrons and manceuvered their 
battalions, and spliced the main brace, and shivered their 
timbers according to the dictates of their own consciences. 
Did any of them ever go back on their environment ? 
No ; contrariwise they harmonized, and shall we their 
successors fail to do likewise ? Never, gentlemen, never. 
It has been hurled in our faces by the honorable gentle- 
man from England, that the great republic is rotten with 
corruption — that our highest officers are not above 
peculation. Let me ask that honorable gentleman and 
his allies (here the Statesman indicated the Commodore 
and the Cook,) if any president of the United States ever 
stole corn meal and had his disgraceful act perpetuated 
in his country's literature ? I pause for a reply. None ? 
Then none has ever done such a deed. And yet, gentle- 
men, it is recorded of one of the most exemplary of Eng- 

* Reported in full on the spot by the Editor. 



THE STATESMAN CEASES. 97 

lish monarchs that he not only stole the then current 
equivalent of corn meal, but caused it to be used 
on the royal table. I invite you to join me in sing- 
ing a song to the glory of Old England — one, two, 
three : sing ! 

(Air Auld Lang Syne.) 

When good King Arthur ruled this land, 

He was a goodly king. 
He stole three pecks of barley meal, 

To make a bag-pudding. 

A bag-pudding the Queen did make, 

And stuffed it well with plums, 
And in it put great lumps of fat, 
As big as my two thumbs. 

The King and Queen did eat thereof, 

And noblemen beside, 
And what they could not eat that night, 

The Queen next morning fried. 

(Great applause.) 

" Can anything more clearly indicate a low moral sen- 
timent than the existence, and acknowledged popularity 
of this song? Fellow citizens (carried away by the tide 
of eloquence the Statesman forgot to say shipmates) and 
you, sir, whose alien friendship I am proud to own, 
although the unfortunate accident of a foreign birth (for 
which I cannot blame you,) opens a chasm between us — 
fellow citizens, I have done. My native land is behind 
me. I now appeal for protection to the Queen of Eng- 
land, and for the time being repudiate the American 
Eagle — though with all his faults I love him still." 



9S CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

Amid thunders of applause the Vice jumped down 
and inquired why luncheon was not ready. 

After an hour's rest and refreshment in a sheltered 
nook, the squadron proceeded on its way under paddle, 
the wind having died out, making for a heavily wooded 
island visible several miles distant, on which it was sur- 
mised there would be good camping ground. Islands 
indeed proved to be the most satisfactory camping places 
that were found during the expedition, and were invaria- 
bly selected when practicable. 

The squadron paddled socially along, side by side, 
until the Cook stopped his stroke and fell behind. As 
he seemed to be engaged in making some not very satis- 
factory arrangement of his luggage, the Commodore 
ranged alongside and asked what was the matter. 

" I can't fix my seat so as to be comfortable.'* 

" Thought so.' 

" How do you fix yours ? " 

" Why this way," and the Commodore, vacated his 
seat, turning round and sitting on his forward thwart, so 
as to afford an unobstructed view. The two other canoes 
had now drawn near. 

" Look at that," said the Vice. " He can stand up 
and turn round without upsetting in that old tub of his." 

" So can I," said the Cook, suiting the action to the 
word. 

" So cannot we," said the Purser, and the Vice. u But 
what are you looking at ? " 



A CONVENIENT SEAT. 



99 



It is a characteristic of Chrysalid canoeists that they 
never notice anything outside of their own boats until 
they bring up all standing, as it were, against it. Hence 




the Commodore's seat was a novelty to them, and they 
gazed upon it with mute admiration. 

The blocks in which the cross-pieces rest, are screwed 
to the inside of the canoe. The cross-pieces are ash sticks 



IOO CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

about an inch in diameter. They are fourteen inches 
apart. Over and around them is passed a piece of four- 
teen inch canvas, with grommets for lacing on the under 
side. The seat should have a slight slope aft and should 
be so placed that a back-board will rest conveniently 
against the after thwart or bulkhead. If the cross-pieces 
spring too much, two bits of wood cut to fit between 
them on either side of the canvas will make the whole 
structure very firm and elastic. A simpler arrangement is 
a movable thwart made of half-inch pine, with cross-pieces 
tongued and grooved across the ends to prevent splitting. 
If made eighteen inches wide, such a thwart may be used 
for a lee-board, as the canoeist should sit on or near the 
bottom of his craft when under canvas. 

" There are some advantages about Red Lake canoes," 
said the Vice. 

" Very plebeian though," said the Cook, satirically ; 
" their principal mission is to go cruising with Chrysalids 
in the capacity of tenders." 

" Yes," said the Vice," I admit their carrying capacity." 

" And their superior speed," said the Cook. 

" And their great stability," added the Commodore. 
So with cheerful chaff the fleet went on its way, and in 
a couple of hours was making camp on a pretty island, 
evidently a resort for picnickers and which was playfully 
called " Murderer's Isle," from an unpleasant episode of 
early days. 

The Commodore, having noted an abundance of drift 



THE PICTURESQUE. 101 

lying about, detailed himself to procure fire-wood, and 
stretched at full length upon the dry sand, leisurely 
tossed fragments of wood toward the spot where the 
Cook was engaged in the soothing attempt to light a fire 
with damp paper and wet matches, and the Purser was 
scraping, within the water's edge, a hole to be used after 
supper as a dish-pan, when the expedition suddenly ob- 
tained its first foreign view of the picturesque. From the 
shore of the main land there crept out something which 
at first bore itself somewhat as indicated on the next page. 
It finally resolved itself into a strange craft which 
seemed to be a generous pig-trough remodelled by one 
with yearnings after the art of the undertaker. Stand- 
i n g> y et bent nearly double, in the stern was a slight, 
short old man, clothed in raiment utterly unlike any- 
thing which any member of the expedition had ever 
seen at home. The old man paddled his boat at a 
surprising rate of speed directly toward the camp of 
the expedition, and as he did so the gazers gradually 




The Picturesque afar. 

lost their enjoyment of the picturesque in the realization 
of a dread duty about to devolve upon them for the first 
time during the cruise. The old man being a Canadian, 
it naturally resulted that he must be a Frenchman, and 



102 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



incapable of English. Who was to converse with him? 
The Cook, who had picked up some French among the 
Louisiana Creoles, but had not for ten years heard or 




The Picturesque anear. 

spoken a word of the beautiful language, modestly retired 
behind the Commodore's broad shoulders. The silence 
began to be terrible, but it was bliss compared with the 
sensation with which the group shuddered when the 
strange craft slid noiselessly and darkly up the beach, and 
her crew partially undoubled himself and remarked, 

'• Wahu ei hoo mi eh ha ma ? " 

" Three mariners involuntarily dropped back a pace or 
two; the fourth (the Cook) felt secure in his inconspicu- 
ousness until he discovered that he had been dropped to 
the ground by the Commodore's backward movement, 
and that the Commodore was nervelessly sitting upon 
him. At length the Vice, whose admiration for the 
French Commune had caused him to immure himself 
many a night with some ex-Communists who had escaped 
to America, asked in faltering tones, 

" Q'est-ce-que vous voulez ? " 

" That's it," gasped the Cook, as he endeavored to 



THE ANCIENT MARINER. 



103 



reanimate the Commodore's spinal cord with the sharp 
end of a quill toothpick, " make the ancient mariner ex- 
plain himself." 

But the Ancient Mariner only shook his head with a 
vao-ue look, and said. 







IS; 



Wahu ei hoo mi eh ha nia ? 



'• O hyu wuh 00 mi en ? " 

Then the Commodore, who had lived a year in Paris, 
and was familiar with the polite phrases there in vogue, 
said, 



104 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

11 Voulez-vous pourboire ? " 

The old man shook his head, scrutinized the 
party closely, read the names of the boats, and ex- 
claimed, 

" Haw hihi." 

Then the Purser, who before he left Oxford had made 
a French translation of the " Antigone " of Sophocles, 
which competent judges pronounced superior to that of 
Voltaire, stepped a pace to the front to hide his blanched 
countenance, and said, 

" Nous ne comprenons pas." 

And the old man replied, 

" Haw hihi, hahu ? " 

By this time the Cook, who had extricated himself 
from beneath the ruins of the Commodore, was discreetly 
and rapidly seeking the leafy coverts of the forest, but 
the Vice detected him and dragged him back. The 
Cook put on an air of bravery and exclaimed, 

" It's no use, boys ; I'm convinced that he's a Basque, 
who has strayed up into France, and somehow got over 
here. I speak half a dozen languages, but there are no 
affinities between the Basque and any other known dia- 
lect. It will be just as well to talk English to him as 
anything else, so here goes. Say, old friend, we don't 
know what you're driving at, but " — here a happy thought 
struck the Cook, " say it over again." And while the 
Cook listened attentively, the old man repeated his first 
inquiry, 



THE COOK TO THE RESCUE. 105 

" Wahu ei hoo mi eh ha ma? " 

" Certainly ! " exclaimed the Cook briskly, " how 
much do you ask for them ? " 

" Hihi hen," replied the old man with great animation. 

" It's a bargain," said the Cook ; " Purser, please give 
the ancient mariner half a dollar ? " And then the Cook, 
with the air of a man who comprehended the wisdom of 
the ages, explained to his astonished auditors. " Gentle- 
men, our visitor is not a Frenchman at all ; he is an 
Irishman whose palate has departed, and he wants to 
know if we will buy two pike and a bass — ' hoo mi eh ha 
ma,' — you know." The old man in the meantime hurried 
to his boat, paddled off to a crate anchored on the edge 
of the channel, and returned with a string of fish in the 
full vigor of life. 

The three linguists sat deliberately down upon the 
sand, and their lips remained closed until coaxed from 
their obduracy by the mingled odors of coffee, fried fish, 
buttered toast and canned peaches. The Vice was heard 
to mutter, " French I can talk and most patois I can 
understand, but Basque complicated with loss of palate 
throws me." Presently however he began to exhibit symp- 
toms of his accustomed loquacity. 

It so happened that the supper table was sustained 
by resting against the cut-water of the Cherub, and it 
gradually dawned upon the Vice that there was some- 
thing peculiar about her construction, something, that 
is, different from the construction of a Chrysalid which 



NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. I07 

which is built in the orthodox style, known as lap-streak 
or clinker, the planks being of quarter-inch white cedar, 
and the timbers of well seasoned oak. Said he, address- 
ing the owners of the Red Lakers : 

" Why don't the joints between your planking show ? " 

" Because the boats are not built in that way," said 
the Cook. 

" But that's no way to build a boat ; the seams can't 
be made tight unless the planks over-lap. Look at the 
Rochefort." 

" Very true," said the Commodore, " but our boats 
don't seem to leak so very much more than yours do, for 
all that." 

" How are they built any how? " and the Purser and 
the Vice simultaneously arose and examined the Red 
Lakers by moonlight and firelight. 

Mention has already been made of the characteristic 
indifference of Chrysalid owners to all canoes which are 
not Chrysalids until some chance occurrence forces them 
to make examination. 

In this respect they strikingly resemble certain ecclesi- 
astical sects, which rest serenely ignorant of other denom- 
inations, until they stumble upon information inadver- 
tently, which startles into respectful investigation. 

" Why they are perfectly smooth inside and out," — 
" no timbers at all," — " what lots of rivets," were some 
of the remarks. 

" Certainly, haven't we told you so a dozen times," 



108 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

said the Cook, " and you never looked at them be- 
fore." 

" How do you suppose they are made ? " asked the 
Vice. 

" I am informed," replied the Commodore, " that thin 
strips of white cedar are steamed and bent transversely 
over an exact model or "last" of the intended canoe. 
The edges are straight so that they fit closely against 
one another. When all these are in place, a longitudinal 
outside sheathing of cedar or other wood, butternut in the . 
case of our boats, is copper-fastened to the inner lining, 
the nails being driven through both thicknesses at short 
intervals, and clinched on the inside: The ribs and 
sheathing as used by the builder are each a quarter-inch 
thick, so that the total thickness is half an inch. The 
canoe is 'perfectly free from ribs inside, and from the 
raised edges outside, and cannot leak while she remains 
sound. Her strength is necessarily immense from the 
way in which she is put together." 

" I think," added the Cook, " that we get a good deal 
of speed out of this model from the absence of the over- 
laps which are unavoidable in clinker built boats. These 
necessarily hold the water to an extent which must be 
appreciable in so light a craft. Moreover, the fore and aft 
curve of the bottom line rids them of a deal of what 
buiiders call ' skin-friction.' Recent experiments indicate 
that a shape like the bowl of a spoon offers the least 
resistance in passing over the surface of water." 



NAVAL CONSTRUCTION. IO9 

11 Your boats approximate to the spoon shape, that's a 
fact," said the Purser. 

" Look at those rivets," remarked the Vice, " they 
make her look as though she were freckled." 

" Granted," was the Cook's answer, " but are not 
freckles beautiful when they indicate a sound constitu- 
tion ? " 

" The rib-and-batten, and the paper boats are quite 
as smooth outside," the Commodore admitted, " but, 
they all have internal projections which are sometimes 
inconvenient, as for instance when you wish to sleep on 
board, or when you are trying to sponge out sand and so 
forth." 

The Purser and the Vice closed the dispute by prov- 
ing that their lap-streak cedar boats when empty were 
somewhat lighter than the others, and the Commodore 
and Cook were fain to be content with asserting that if 
lightness were the only object. Red-Lakers could be built 
lighter than Chrysalids by using thinner stuff. 



VII. 



GARRISON LIFE. 

THE Vice and the Purser, having boats of the 
Chrysalid model, were so long in stowing their car- 
goes that the Commodore and the Cook started in ad- 
vance of the remainder of the squadron and made a 
brisk run to a British fort, the outline of whose parapet 
was discernible to a military eye, on an island some 
miles distant. When built during the last war, this work 
was far beyond the range of Yankee guns, but now the 
two forts might exchange cards with some chance of 
doing execution, albeit they are out of sight of one 
another. 

Doubting what reception they might meet at the 
hands of a British garrison, the voyagers resolved them- 
selves into two divisions, one of which approached the 
water-gate, while the other ran behind a stockade which 
flanked the work. No sentries being visible upon the 
parapet, the two officers disembarked and having learned 
in former days never incautiously to approach an earth- 
work, they advanced up the glacis and along the coun- 
terscarp with due circumspection. Suddenly the Cook 
paused, seized his companion's arm ; struck a dramatic 
attitude and exclaimed, 







% 
& 






■m<- 



mm. ? 



:/ >y 




112 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

" Behold the garrison ! " 

The couple, who had walked as they conversed, had 
reached one of the bastions, and as the Cook spoke, the two 
men beheld, between the gabion-lined walls of an embra- 
sure, three children with uncovered heads and saucer- 
like eyes. 

" ' Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled 
front,' " said the Cook. 

" ' And thus be it ever/ " quoted the Commodore. 

By this time the Purser and the Vice had made the 
island, and joined the first arrivals, who carefully and 
with professional pride inspected the outward defences 
of the fort, using technical military terms with a fluency 
which humbled their civilian companions into compara- 
tive silence. At length the Vice, noticing the rotting 
stockade, the weedy ditch, and other signs of inattention, 
ventured to let the eagle scream a note or two. 

" Just like everything else, that is subject to the de- 
caying influence of monarchical institutions," said he. 
" How quickly a handful of our brave fellows would take 
possession of it ! " 

" Perhaps," admitted the Commodore, " but I'd prefer 
to risk my chances from the inside." 

The Purser immediately patted the Commodore on 
the back, while the Vice opened his eyes and demanded 
an explanation. 

" Some forts," remarked the Commodore, " are like 
singed cats ; they fight better than they look. This fort 



THE BRITISH GARRISON. 113 

is in better condition now, than half the forts were that 
have become historic." 

" But in case of sudden war," said the Vice, " there's 
nothing at hand to repair a broken-down fort with, is 
there?" 

" Yes ; living men ; they make and unmake forts," said 
the Commodore brusquely. 

" It's the same way with conventions and caucuses," 
remarked the Vice, regaining his self-respect as he im- 
agined himself once more the Commodore's equal. 

" You've been a soldier," said the Purser to the Cook, 
" and I am longing to see once more the uniform of my na- 
tive country. Tell me how to gain admission to the fort." 

The Cook replied, 

'* Go around to the sally port, which you will be sure 
to find opening away from the neighboring republic, and 
fire your pistol. The guard will hurry out and make you 
its prisoner ; then the Commodore and I will come around 
and intercede for you, on the ground of your ignorance." 

The Purser looked disdainful ; " And think you," said 
he, " that Britain's laws are so fitful as to waver under the 
persuasions of a brace of Yankees ? " 

" When Yankees can't persuade Britishers," remarked 
the Vice, " they usually proceed to" — 

" Pack a High Court of Arbitration," interrupted the 
Purser. 

The quartette straggled through the tall weeds, which 
prevented farther chaff, and reached the sally port. The 



4 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



heavy gates hung aloft, their duty being discharged by 
deputy in the shape of long rails resting edgewise in 
two posts, and with " No Admittance " painted upon a 




The British Garrison. 

board. The garrison, moving on interior lines, gradu- 
ally massed itself behind the board, its forefingers 
taking wary positions within its respective mouths. Be- 
hind, and in the centre of the terreplain, towered an 
enormous haystack. "Behold," said the Purser, "the 
ingenuity with which the garrison has placed the hay- 
stack just where riflemen can take shelter behind it, and 
command the entrance to the fort, picking off infatuated 
Yankees who venture upon the drawbridge." 

"True," retorted the Cook, "the idea is not unlike 
that of General Jackson, who used cotton-bales at New 
Orleans, but I believe it was not Yankees, who were picked 
off." The contrast between the ideal and the real was so 



THE SALLY PORT. 



115 



absorbing, as the four stood at the bridge-head, that some 
time elapsed before they realized that clouds had gath- 
ered heavily, and begun to drop their contents. 

" My main hatch is open ! " shrieked the Vice, as he 
hurried off to his canoe. 

" My tobacco — and it's a rare Brazilian article — is 



#r-M 







The Sally Port. 

lying in the bottom of my boat ! " shouted the Cook, as 
he followed the Vice. 

" The Vice and the Cook will tow up the other boats," 
ordered the Commodore, " while the Purser and I con- 
struct temporary shelter." 

Several hundred yards from the fort was a group of 
trees and a board pile, and to this the commanding offi- 



Il6 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

cer and the Purser hastened. The trees seemed to have 
been a favorite resort of cattle, and the contents of the 
board pile were rotten, but it was not a time to be par- 
ticular, so a beam was stretched between the limbs of two 
trees, and boards slanted against it to shed the rain. 
Fortunately a platform of boards happened to be just 
where the extempore shed would cover it. When the Vice 
and the Cook returned, the latter considerately bringing 
dinner material with him, it was discovered to be noon-day, 
so the party did justice to bread and butter, ^cold tongue, 
and a can of apricots. Suddenly the Vice remarked, 

■' I suppose these boards beneath our feet are the 
floor of some late military structure. I can't help notic- 
ing how perfectly they are combined for drainage, sag- 
^incr as thev do, at the centre." 

The Commodore had not before noticed the peculiar- 
ity alluded to, but now his mathematical eye saw that 
the depression in the boards was lower than the surface of 
the surrounding ground. Extracting a trolling line from 
the Vice's pocket, he lowered a sinker cautiously in a 
crack between two boards, unrolled considerable line, 
withdrew it, and remarked, 

" I have the pleasure of informing the squadron that 
during military occupation of the fort, the inmates of the 
hospital, the ruins of which we behold in front of us, had 
an abundant supply of cool water from a very deep well, 
which well is at the present moment directly under us, 
while the boards which cover it are slowly breaking." 



A TEMPORARY SHELTER. 



117 



Every one sprang to his feet. While at his home oc- 
cupation of statesmanship, the Vice never beheld disas- 
ter impending over his own party without speedily travers- 
ing the whole distance between his own party and the 
opposition, so on this particular occasion, his instincts im- 
pelled him to dash through rain, mud, and thistles toward 
the ruins of the hospital, whose wall offered the most dis- 
tinct shelter within view. The Vice wore a helmet, his 




The Vampire Bat. 

long whiskers fluttered behind him on the breeze, his 
shoulders and body were covered by a black rubber blan- 
ket, his trowsers were rolled high above his stockingless 
calves, and he wore a huge pair of carpet slippers, which 
were nearly as wide as they were long. His figure and 
attitudes, as he ran, were so full of suggestion that the 
artist preserved them in a series of sketches, severally en- 
titled. 

" The Flight of Cain." 

" Scotch Laird enjoying His Favorite Weather." 



I 1 8 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

"Study of the Bottom of a Bear's Foot." 

" Rip Van Winkle chased by Dogs." 

" Mephistophiles Triumphant." 

" Election Returns from a Rural District." 

" The great Vampire Bat." 

The absence of the Vice left his late companions in 
possession of additional elbow room, but on a rainy day 
there are blessings more to be desired than elbow room. 
Among these is a pipe of tobacco, and four walls between 
which to smoke it. The Cook's precious Brazilian tobacco, 
was wet, the Commodore and the Purser had left their 
pouches in their boats, but e?xh man had a pipe in his 
pocket, and it was known that the Vice had in his pos- 
session a bag of delicious weed. So dispatches were sent 
him during a slight lull in the storm, and the Commodore 
and Purser made a reconnoissance in the direction of the 
fort. The garrison being invisible, the storming party 
dashed over the bridge and beneath the temporary port- 
cullis, putting to flight a large body of chickens who were 
carelessly resting upon their arms in the guard-room. 
These alarmed the commander of the fort, who at once 
emerged from headquarters, with an axe upoji his 
shoulder, and himself in dishabille. 

The Commodore saluted the commandant, and asked, 
with due formality, the courtesy of shelter for himself and 
companions, and for permission to walk about the fort 
when the rain should cease. 

" Is it wantin' to be out av the wet ye are ? " asked 



TAKEN BY STORM. 



119 



the commandant; "come straight into the kitchen an 
dhry yerselves." 

" There are two more of us, yet to come," explained 
the Commodore. 

" Ah, niver ye fear," quoth the old man ; " isn't the 
kitchen in the casemate that held the biggest gun, in 
the good ould times, an' hasn't a whole company av the 
Rifles, been in there to wanst many's the time." 

The casemate proved of generous size, as was also the 




The Commandant. 

cooking-stove that stood in the midst of it. The com- 
mandant's wife and children made haste to place chairs, 
while one child was detailed to bring in the Vice and the 
Cook at the double-quick. Soon the quartette sat about 
the refilled stove, and though the month was July, no 
one thought to push back his chair. Gradually there 
stole over the party that delicious drowsiness which is 
peculiar to a man who has been acting as clothes-horse 
to a wet suit — a drowsiness 



120 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

" That resembles slumber only 
As the mist resembles rain " — 

a drowsiness which demands not sleep, but smoke. In 
short, each member of the expedition was dying for a 
pipe, but he would have prolonged his sensation of disso- 
lution to its logical end rather than have got out of 
his chair on the one hand, or, on the other, have ven- 
tured to smoke in an apartment which was apparently 
the host's parlor as well as his kitchen. But the Vice, 
the Statesman, the moulder of men, came at the critical 
instant to the rescue of his companions and to that of 

" A nearer one 
Still, and adearer one " — 
himself. 

" You must find it quite lonesome here at times," he 
remarked to the commandant of the fort. 

" Thrue for yez, an' I do," responded her Majesty's 
representative. 

" Still," continued the Vice, " I suppose you can once 
in a while take some comfort out of a drop and a smoke ? " 

The commandant of the fort winked profoundly. The 
Vice passed his half pint flask stealthily to the custodian 
of Britain's honor, and the old man, first prudently send- 
ing his wife out of the casemate for something, drained 
the flask with the greatest courtesy and enthusiasm. 
Then the Vice remarked, 

" I suppose you get very good smoking tobacco in 
Canada, as there is no duty on it, but permit me to leave 
you a fine pouch of it, as a slight remembrance of your 
courtesy to us." 



DIPLOMACY. 



121 



The commandant accepted the token of esteem, and 
smiled his thanks from every line of his wrinkled visage. 
Then he opened the pouch, and advanced his ancient 
nose, first cautiously, then critically, and finally with 
a sniff of decided approbation. 




The Commandant's Lady. 

" Try it at once," said the Vice, with ill-dissembled 
eagerness. " Don't hesitate on our account — we are old 
smokers." 

The commandant acted at once upon the suggestion, 
first courteously passing the bag to his guests. Within 
three minutes these traditional enemies were smoking 
the pipe of peace together, nor was lovely woman missing 
from the circle, for the commandant's lady filled and lit, 
not exactly a yard, but a " lady-finger " of clay herself, 
and puffed thereat with great satisfaction. 

The rain ended, the party went out to look at the 
fort, and discovered that what from the outside had 
G 



122 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

appeared a mere earthwork was really a very carefully 
built fort, with stone quarters, galleries, casemates and 
revetments, and easy of defence to a mere handful of 
men. 

Just as the party was bidding adieu to their kind 
entertainers, there occurred an accident which displayed 
to an unexpected degree the esprit de corps of the expe- 
dition. The commandant had offered the Commodore 
some milk for the expedition, if some one would wait an 
hour for it — the cows were quite a way off, he said. To 
wait inside a grim fort while the sun shone brightly out- 
side, and four canoes needing inspection on account of 
damages by rain, was a duty to chill the ardent soul. 
Just then, however, when the Commodore was wonder- 
ing if he could safely forget his own morning detail of 
himself as fleet milkman, and assign this duty to some 
one else, the commandant's older daughter, heretofore 
invisible, and of about eighteen or twenty summers, 
appeared from an adjoining room. 

" Til stay, Commodore," shouted three manly voices 
in unison. The Commodore was so affected by this 
devotion to the interests of the fleet that he felt shamed 
into a determination to remain true to his self-appointed 
duty, but when he beheld the Purser's pleading eyes, 
more eloquent than any words could be, human sympathy 
overcame soulless discipline in the Commodore's rugged 
breast, and the brotherhood of man asserted itself. 

The wind and the shower died together, and as each 



GLADSTONE'S POLICY. 1 23 

captain of a vessel had some special reason to wish him- 
self farther on his journey, it was agreed that the squadron 
should proceed under paddles, and camp for the night at 
a point which the Vice knew all about, having camped 
there during a previous cruise with the Alderman. This 
plan was accepted with expressions of the liveliest satis- 
faction. 

As the Purser rejoined the command with his milk 
pail, the three Americans were seriously conversing about 
garrison life, as it exists in the British service. 

" I have often read," the Vice was saying, " of the 
exalted social tone which pervades the British army, and 
I confess that I am glad to have been admitted even for 
so short a time into society so select." 

" I have always understood," said the Commodore, 
"that the commandant of an English military post is 
sure to be a gentleman of high social position at home." 

The Cook remarked that " it was pleasant to have the 
notions of the simple and unaffected manners of the Eng- 
lish aristocracy, as derived from contemporaneous litera- 
ture, so pleasantly confirmed by an actual experience." 

" But you know that there isn't any — " put in the 
Purser. 

The Cook went on serenely with his remarks, in the 
same vein and was so ably seconded by his fellow citi- 
zens, that the Purser finally embarked and paddled away, 
stopping a few yards from shore to shout defiantly back, 

" It was all Gladstone's doings, you know. But for 



124 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

him there would have been a regular garrison there, 
and may be you wouldn't have been so cordially 
received." 

To be out of doors and at liberty for ten days is, to 
men without physical vices, wonderfully exhilarating, and 
enforced confinement by a few hours of rain only inten- 
sifies physical spirit and alertness. Every nerve and 
muscle seems to demand something to do, a mountain to 
climb, an untamed horse to ride, a locomotive to drive, a 
regiment to lead into a battle, or — as was the case with, 
the Vice on this particular afternoon — a good, close, 
vicious political canvass to dash into. To gratify and 
utilize this sensation, there is no sport superior or equal 
to that of paddling a canoe. Rowing may lessen the 
physical disquiet, but while the canoeist sits upright 
in his boat, voluntarily working only with his arms, 
and learning of unsupposed physical availability and 
grace with every motion, the oarsman sways to and 
fro like the deserted half of a melancholy hinge, which 
wavers helplessly about in air, always longing for some- 
thing to attach itself to, but never finding it. Be- 
sides, the paddler faces his water and his goal, instead 
of fixing his eyes unceasingly upon the fleeting past. 
The oarsman's duties are confined to steady pulling, 
while with every stroke of his paddle, the canoeist pulls 
and pushes also, discharging these duties with alternate 
arms as he works upon the opposite sides of his boat. 
The exercise is not passive, like that which one takes on 



THE MODERN CANOE PADDLE. 1 25 

horseback, nor does it partake of that mental strain 
which a man experiences when he takes the helm of his 
own yacht. It is superior, by far, in physical benefit, to 
that most exhilarating experience that comes of driving 
a canoe under full sail and before a brisk breeze. And 
if, after an hour's work at the beginning of a cruise, 
the canoeist finds himself the owner of two handfuls of 
blisters which nobody cares to borrow, he finds himself 
at its end in possession of a fund of strength, spirits, 
and clearness of head and heart that are far too pre- 
cious to lend, although they may have been bought very 
cheaply. 

The paddles used by the modern canoeist are like 
that represented on the cover of this book. They are 
very light, being made usually of spruce, an inch and a 
half in diameter at the largest part of the shaft. For a 
wide canoe a nine foot paddle is desirable, but for nar- 
rower craft one seven and a half feet or even seven feet 
long is sufficient. A common ferule joint in the middle 
facilitates close packing. Two joints dividing the paddle 
in three parts, do not work well in practice. Rubber 
rings, or the two halves of a three inch rubber ball cut 
to slip over the shafts prevent the water from dripping 
inboard. 

The squadron had sailed thus far without beholding 
any of the picturesque which is peculiarly French, but 
now it hoped that at landing, the essence of Acadia 
would be visible. It seemed for a few moments as if this 



126 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

hope was about to be realized, for as the boats approached 
their prospective landing, two quaintly dressed boys stood 
observantly and quietly upon the bank, instead of danc- 
ing and hooting like savages, or casting stones and ob- 
jurgations at the squadron, as almost any brace of boys 
in the United States would have done under similar 
circumstances. 

" Note the respectful ways engendered by monarchical 
institutions," observed the Commodore. 

" Rather the absence of the spirit which the heavy 
hand of despotism has crushed out," replied the Vice. 

As the boats were beached, the boys timidly ap- 
proached them. The Vice, forgetting his first encounter 
of the picturesque, accosted them in French, and was 
somewhat confused by their replies until he learned that 
the youths were of English parentage, and that they 
lisped. 

The boys were soon reinforced by their father, a 
tall, modest, but self-reliant looking man, who" eyed the 
camping preparations of the party with an interest which 
was greater than curiosity, and which was explained 
afterward by the discovery that he had been of the Argo- 
nauts of '49. 

The Vice, in his capacity of Statesman, knew the 
honest farmer as a type, only as the principal element of 
mass-meetings which he sometimes addressed ; the Com- 
modore, when in his editorial chair, knew him principally 
as a subscriber to be secured ; the Cook, when playing 



THE COMMODORES CHOICE. 1 27. 

scribbler, found the farmer-type useful to contrast with 
other types, and the Purser, when in his studio, knew 
him only as an occasional adjunct to a pastoral compo- 
sition. 

But after the self-contained, hard-working, rather 
lonely and diffident farmer had lounged about the camp 
for a couple of hours that evening, the party learned, as 
the city-bred man needs sorely to learn about many 
another farmer, that the old man could see something in 
a sunset besides tints reducible into pigments, more in a 
book than its writer's art, that he knew more of the essen- 
tials of politics than the editor and statesman combined, 
and stranger still, that he cared neither to edit a news- 
paper nor to run for office. 

After a good supper and a cheerful pipe or two, the 
Commodore, who had been extremely quiet for a few 
moments, announced that he considered it the proper 
thing for canoeists to sleep in their boats instead of 
tents. 

"Then," said the Commodore, "if the river rises 
suddenly, you will be in your boat, instead of having it 
drift away from you." 

" And if you turn over in bed, in such case," remarked 
the Vice, " you'll never know what drcfwned you." 

The Commodore did not reply, for the real object of 
suggestion was to emphasize one point of superiority of 
the Red Lake model, after which his own boat and the 
Cook's were built, over the Chrysalid model affected by 



128 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



the other two mariners. But the Commodore's will was 
law, and that night the four men slept each in his own 
canoe, a rubber blanket thrown across a line extending 
from mast to mast affording protection from dew and 
possible rain. 




VIII. 

THE BEGINNING OF ACADIA. 

ON the morning of this day, two canoeists arose 
from their nautical couches with that satisfied 
air which betokens a night of peaceful rest, but the 
Vice and the Purser arose only after many a premonitory 
groan, and even then they strongly resembled a couple 
of rough logs from which a single slab had been sawn, 
so flattened was one side of each. The Commodore eyed 
them with manifest satisfaction, called the attention of 
each of them to the appearance of the other, and ex- 
claimed, 

" Observe the effect of sleeping in a canoe with ribs 
and a bottom board ! I was curious to see how the ex- 
periment would result." 

" I wish, then," grunted the Vice, as by vicious 
pinches he sought to restore animation in his flattened 
side, " I wish — ow — that your devotion to science had 
prompted you to try the experiment upon yourself, and 
borrowed my canoe to do it in." 

" Thanks, thanks," rejoined the Commodore, briskly, 
" but I had an experiment of the same sort to try in my 
own boat, which has a smooth concave bottom. I beg 
6* 



130 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

you will observe how my outlines preserve their habitual 
shapeliness." 

The flat-sided sufferers retired for a bath, and speed- 
ily forgot their sorrows. If the morning bath in a city 
bath-tub is a washer-away oi fragments of slumber, and 
a merry awakener, how much more delightful is the same 
exercise in an ever-replenishing body of water half a 
mile wide and hundreds of miles long, enclosed only by 
blue sky, green trees and brown earth, with no close din- 
ing-room and conventional breakfast to be descended to, 
no morning paper to be read, no vile horse-car to go to 
business on, nor any hard pavement to tramp over, and 
no brother man to find fault with, except in that cheer- 
ful banter which always comes back to bless the giver. 
Thus thought the Cook as he stood waist deep in the 
clear water, and thus he might have continued to think 
for a long time had his foot not impinged upon the 
riparian rights of an honest mussel with slightly parted 
shells. 

The Commodore had already been out for provisions, 
and returned rejoicing. 

" Another proof of the superiority of monarchical in- 
stitutions," said he. " Instead of the prices we have 
been accustomed to heretofore, I pay twelve cents a-piece 
for chickens, ten cents per pound for butter, and three 
cents per dozen for eggs." 

" And you are pleased to regard this cheapness as a 
virtue?" asked the Vice. " Is no one but the buyer 



SLINGING THE HEALTHY. 131 

to be considered ? " How do you suppose people live 
who sell the products of their industry at such starvation 
figures? But monarchists and imperialists have but a 
single idea — to crush the poor." 

The Commodore shrunk an inch or two in length and 
breadth, but soon recovered himself, donned a vicious 
smile, and announced with assumed cheerfulness that the 
time had come to " sling the healthy," whereby monarch- 
ists, imperialists and republicans would suffer alike. 

" What's that ? " asked the Cook. 

The Commodore grinned sardonically. " He wants 
to know what, slinging the healthy,is," said he. " Well, 
he'll know before dinner. It means paddling — paddling 
in earnest, young man — paddling a ten or fifteen mile 
stretch, instead of a leisurely half mile." 

There seemed no alternative, for the river was as 
smooth as glass. The sun noted the mirror-like surface 
of the water, and his natural vanity caused him to rub up 
his face until its brightness could not be increased. Just 
by way of refreshing the pleasurable sensation of behold- 
ing his face in the water, he dropped his gaze quite fre- 
quently upon the blue-shirted backs of the canoeists, 
until each man imagined that he must have caught some 
sparks from the camp-fire. Then it seemed as if there 
must be rain falling from the cloudless sky, for the Cook 
felt water-drops coursing steadily down his back. The 
Purser was sure his boat must be leaking, for water was 
gradually soaking the small canvas cushion on which he 



132 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

sat in the bottom of his canoe. The Vice's slippers grew 
clammily moist, and the Commodore's eyes filled with 
water which was not an accumulation of remorseful tears. 
But no man would debase himself so far as to be the first 
to cry for mercy. 

But the Vice, the Statesman, was true to his profes- 
sion. To have suggested a rest would have been merely 
a straight-forward act which even an idiot might have 
performed. The Vice preferred to gain his point by an 
exercise of intellect. Haifa mile down the stream was a 
small pier ; to this the Vice called the panting Commo- 
dore's attention, and exclaimed, 

"That, by gosh,* is the identical dock where the 
Alderman and I went swimming. I assume that all such 
important precedents are to be respectfully observed ?" 

"They are" said the Commodore, almost fainting 
with the ecstasy of the transition from despair to hope. 

Within ten minutes the. boats were beached, and four 
perspiring canoeists, after an interval of rest, made haste 
to disrobe and take headers from the pier into the re- 
freshing water. 

From this pier the Commodore called the attention of 
his companions to a glittering spire which shot heaven- 
ward a mile down the river, and exclaimed, 

" There begins Acadia. Every spire we see hereafter will 
be of that precise pattern — they are as unchanging as the 
beautiful faith which our sister Church of Rome maintains." 

* The Vice was from an eastern rural district. 



134 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

"Have we a Ritualist among us?" whispered the 
Vice to the Cook, with a face full of horror. 

" Ye — es," replied the Cook, reluctantly, " but don't 
think too hardly of the poor fellow. Editors must have 
some sort of religious belief, you know — they're human, 
like the rest of us — and how can they reconcile their 
practice to any thing but a religion of mere forms ? What 
would religion be, if it did not provide for every man's 
own peculiar infirmities?" 

The Vice eyed the Commodore with abating horror, 
nevertheless he began to talk Baptist doctrine to him. 
He even, to arouse his faculties to the utmost, strode up 
and down the shore warbling to himself (so the Purser 
declared) something like this : 

" Baptist, Baptist is my style, 
Baptist born was I. 
I've been baptized in the Baptist way 
And Baptist will I die." 

But the Commodore was obdurate, and intimated that 
the Vice's experience in upsetting from a canoe had some- 
thing to do with his denominational preference ; things had 
to go according to law in newspaper offices, he said ; the 
newspaper was the highest embodiment of human intel- 
lect, and so he reasoned, analogically, that men had no 
higher model to which to conform religion. The Vice 
sighed and determined to convert the Commodore — at a 
more convenient season. 

The calm and heat continued, and no one was rude 






THE PURSERS HAMMOCK. I 35 

enough to make suggestions to the Commodore about 
starting. Indeed, the Purser remembered that he had 
brought a hammock, which until now he had forgotten. 
It was one of the most remarkable hammocks in the 
world — woven of silk by an Italian sailor — wouldn't the 
Commodore just try it ? The Commodore accepted the 
proffer in gracious spirit ; then the Cook remembered that 
the Commodore had never tried the wonderful, the price- 
less Brazilian tobacco, and there could be no fitter place 
than a hammock in which to sample it. The general result 
was that the Commodore occupied the hammock until 
the Cook announced dinner, and even then he arose with 
noticeable reluctance. 

After dinner the breeze sprang up again, and as it 
wafted clouds of dust into the eyes, faces and hair of the 
expedition, as well as upon their garments, still damp 
with honest sweat, every one hailed with joy the order to 
sail. Besides, the dinner had been a mere lunch, and as 
the largest town on the river was but a few miles distant, 
the Cook suggested that an excellent dinner might be 
procured there at a quaint little French inn which he had 
visited in other days. This suggestion led to a lively 
race, which as usual in such cases was won by the Cook.* 
Whether beating or beaten, however, the pleasure of 

Note by the Cook. — Contradictions of this statement have been received 
from the Vice and the Purser, but they are couched in language unfit for 
publication. The proof-sheet of this page has been carefully kept from the 
eye of the Commodore. 



136 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

spreading all sails and making the best possible time in a 
good wind, was more than sufficient reward for all the 
effort put forth. With a boat fourteen feet long, and 
weighing, all rigging, spars, personal property, stores, etc., 
included, a scant hundred and fifty pounds, yet carrying 
fifty square feet of canvas, the canoeist has to exert to 
the uttermost his clearness of vision, nicety of touch (at 
the helm) weather wisdom, and balancing ability. He 
is himself his own ballast and the principal portion of the 
cargo. The shifting of five pounds of weight would com- 
pel a capsize, and the slightest flaw, carelessly caught, 
would even more certainly induce the same undesirable 
result. To keep all dead weight as far. as possible below 
the water line, the navigator sits in the bottom of his 
boat, his back resting against a small board which, in turn, 
bears upon the after thwart or bulk-head. In one hand 
he holds the sheet of his mainsail; if he steers with a 
rudder, he holds one tiller rope in the same hand, and 
the other in the remaining digits. If he steers with a pad- 
dle, which is for several reasons the. preferable mode, he 
holds the paddle with the hand unoccupied by the sheet ; 
there is thus a steady strain upon both arms, and this 
strain is also a perfect brace. Some canoeists work the 
tiller with the feet, and this when properly carried out is 
a very convenient mode, but not every one who has tried 
it succeeds in making it work. The time which intervenes 
between the coming of a flaw and the full fruition of a 
capsize, is usually about three seconds, but one of these 



UNDER SAIL. 1 37 

suffices for prevention, if the sailor promptly lets go his 
sheet or allows his boat's head to go into the wind. In 
practice, however, a flaw seldom strikes a close-hauled 
sail ; the pilot's ear detects it coming several seconds be- 
fore it strikes, and so, before it appears, the mainsail is as 
innocent of the possibility of abetting disaster as if it were 
the proprietor of a gambling saloon, who had been fore- 
warned by some sympathetic police captain of an impend- 
ing raid, or a skilful insurance president who knows that 
the state inspector is coming. How the canoeist's ear de- 
tects the coming flaw is the mystery and despair of the 
novice, though several hours of practice make this wis- 
dom seem an acquisition some centuries old. When the 
" green " canoeist experiences a flaw, he generally seeks 
safety by letting go his sheet and at the same time steer- 
ing " into the wind." Safety is at once assured, but when 
the boat again takes the " course," the other boats, if sailed 
by experts, are already too far away to be available if one 
wishes to borrow an aesthetic idea or a pipe of tobacco. 
The experienced sailor lets his sheet go sufficiently, but 
he knows to a breath when the flaw is sufficiently spent to 
allow him to " haul close " again, and he holds his course 
to a point all the while, saving some wind by throw- 
ing his weight well to windward. If he has a satisfac- 
tory family, but lacks as much life insurance as he desires, 
he will prefer to try a good wind over water not more 
than five feet deep, (and such water is a hundred times 
as plentiful as deeper water) but the chance of capsizing 



I38 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

a sober canoeist of a week's practice is less than that of 
falling dead in the street at home ; it is as easy to avoid 
as if it were the risk of stepping over a precipice in full 
view, for in the former case the catastrophe is as easily 
foreseen as in the latter. And while the boat is flying 
(literally, for her bottom barely touches the water, and 
she can sail at a respectable speed over tide-mud barely 
glazed with water,) its occupant has every pleasure ex- 
perienced by the owner of a twenty-thousand dollar 
vacht. He has the same glorious wind whistling in his 
ears, the same sharp remonstrance of the waters divided 
by the bow, the same murmurs of recognition and com- 
plaint by the same waters as they reunite under the stern- 
post, the same sense of triumph over one element, of 
compulsion of another, which if it had its own way would 
be only a fitful ally> the same glorious abandon of health 
and spirits revelling in pure air and in endeavor uncon- 
strained by age, sex, or previous conditions of social or 
business servitude. And when the sail is over, or the 
season itself is ended, the delightful memories of the 
cruise are not, as in the case of the yachtsman, palled by 
recollections of the frightful expense of the crew, or the 
extortionate charges of ship-builders for repairs. And 
while the yachtsman lays up his boat for the winter, and 
bemoans the wasting interest upon her cost, and the 
various charges for dockage, keeping, etc., the canoeist 
quietly puts his boat upon his back, or, at worst a cart, 
carries it to his house, and puts her down in the cellar or 



,id lit iiii 







I40 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

up in the garret (after an unsuccessful attempt to have her 
wintered on top of the piano in the parlor) in either of 
which places he may visit her as frequently as he pleases, 
in any weather, and refresh any memories that may seem 
laggard when recalled. 

The party went into camp in the shade of some grand 
old elms which stood in front of what had once been her 
Majesty's barracks. During the political changes which 
had turned the British spear into the Canadian pruning- 
hook, the barracks had been diverted from their original 
purpose into homes for the friendless poor ; the shore of the 
river in front of them was, therefore, full of the discarded 
crockery and broken bottles peculiar to a certain phase 
of poverty, and as the Vice and the Purser stepped bare- 
footed into the water to carry their boats ashore, the 
soles of their feet testified to the truth of the scriptural 
saying " The poor ye have with you always." ** 

As the expedition landed, weary, foot sore, hungry, un- 
shaven, and covered with the dust of their last camp, the 
sight of a busy town, full of brisk well-to-do people, caused 
them to experience to the uttermost the sensations pe- 
culiar to the vagabond and the pariah. A marvelously.good 
dinner at a marvelously low price comforted the material 
part of their inner man, but their mental parts remained 
ill at ease. So uncomfortable were they that the' party 

* As boats of the Chrysalid model have prominent keels, and stem-posts 
that are merely ornamental, they cannot be beached by a gentle tug at the 
painter, such as is always sufficient with a Red-Lake boat. 



THE ENCHANTRESS. I4I 

took pattern after the vulgar who wish to appear as gen- 
tlemen — they purchased and smoked the best cigars in 
the town. Returned to their camp, the spectacle of a 
number of well-dressed, sprightly children playing under 
the trees reminded them strongly of home, where changes 
of clothing were more numerous than on board canoes, 
and where whatever bath tub may be available, is not 
paved with scrap tin and broken glass and crockery. 

Suddenly an unexpected, an unhoped for influence 
appeared upon the scene. A young lady, who apparently 
had a nephew or niece among the children, strolled toward 
the water's edge a little way from the boats, and amused 
herself with the gambols of a huge water-dog. The par- 
lor critic would scarcely have called her beautiful — proba- 
bly at the Court of Jove there were goddesses more 
beautiful than Juno, nevertheless Juno ruled men as no 
rival beauty did. The lady with the dog noticed no 
member of the expedition, but it was impossible for the 
mariners to be as unconcerned in return, for maidens who 
are embodiments of health, strength, grace and modesty 
are not seen often enough even where maidens most 
do congregate. The Commodore sat down and leaned 
against a tree to hide the dusty back of his shirt ; the 
Purser made haste to don a blue jacket which he had 
fortunately brought with him ; the Vice, who, apparently 
with malice aforethought, had shaved himself, sat in his 
canoe, adjusted his statesman-like glasses, and took full 
satisfaction out of the ennobling spectacle, while the Cook, 



142 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

with characteristic modesty, crept within the tent, where 
he might behold and yet remain invisible. When the lady 
departed, as unfortunately she did, the quartette debated 
whether she went on wings, or floated off on one of the 
clouds that were hovering about, or was wafted away by 
the fortunate breezes which could express their admira- 
tion without being suspected of forwardness or flattery, 
or, whether she was suddenlv translated to a better 




The Enchantress. 

world, as the Vice enthusiastically declared was no more 
than her desert. And yet, the material optics of ^every 
member of that expedition knew that the lady walked 
away upon her own feet, as any ordinary mortal would 
have done, for each of them had gazed industriously after 
her as long as her form was visible. The difference of 
opinion led to no dispute, however, for the manners of 
the expedition had noticeably improved within an hour, 



VISITORS. 143 

and though no canoeist had modified his apparel in any 
way, each man had something in his face which made him 
more presentable. 

Meanwhile the little clouds which had been previously 
acting, each for itself, gathered in convention, resolved 
that in union there was strength, and then proceeded to 
business. The merry children, with juvenile trust in 
nature, suspected nothing until they felt it, and then pro- 
tests were of no avail. But the Commodore took charge 
of the entire party, and massed it within the expedition's 
tent, where the children had a glorious time while the 
navigators strolled about outside and made-believe enjoy 
the heaven-sent shower-bath. Then the shower departed 
and so did the children, the shades of night were drawn, 
and behind these the expedition hid itself while it 
changed its soaked clothing. Then it lit its evening 
candle and prepared for bed, the Vice and the Purser in- 
sisting that the evening couches should be within the tent 
instead of the boats. While in the preliminary stages of 
a discussion, however, a vivacious small dog announced 
the approach of visitors, and then usnered to the front of 
the tent a gentleman, a lady and a small hand-wagon. 
The couple proved to be the parents of one of the chil- 
dren who had been sheltered by the tent during the after- 
noon, and they had called to express their thanks, some 
of which were from the tongue and heart, while others 
were from the hand-wagon, and consisted of bottles of 
excellent ale, a huge loaf of cake, some dainty preserves, 



144 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

etc. The gentleman proved to be an ex-officer of a 
famous Canadian regiment, so the Commodore and the 
Cook talked military affairs with him ; he knew all about 
Dominion politics, so he and the Vice found a point of 
contact ; he was also of English birth, and when the 
Purser learned this, he monopolized him, and the couple 
talked church and agriculture, Gladstone and Melton- 
Mowbray pork pies, while the lady exhibited a degree of 
tact and vivacity which prevented the other gentlemen 
from remembering that the place was not a parlor, and 
that they themselves were not within their respective 
funereal dress suits. Then several citizens with aquatic 
tastes dropped in, one by one, and offered various gen- 
erous hospitalities, and the result of it all was that the 
expedition thought no more of its shabbiness than if this 
condition had suddenly gone out of existence. 

It was not until an unprecedentedly late hour that the 
last visitor departed, and the members of the squadron 
retired with a faint notion that rain was again beginning 
to patter upon the leaves overhead. 



s 



IX. 

AREAS OF RAIN. 

"^ LEEP was sedulously courted this morning by the 
entire squadron, for not only did the late hours and 
social dissipations of the preceding night have a sopo- 
rific effect, but a steady rain had set in during the small 
hours, and not even the Cook felt any disposition to arise 
and shine. The tent was rather close quarters for four, 
so the Commodore had slept in his canoe, and for him 
rising meant stepping out of a dry nest into a steady 
down-pour. After a while, however, voices began to 
issue from the tent and a desire for breakfast soon as- 
serted itself. As the camp was in the outskirts of a 
town, no wood was to be had save through purchase, so 
the Rob-Roy cuisine was resorted to with eminent suc- 
cess, and a wandering small-boy who spoke nothing but 
Kanuck of the most rudimentary description, was per- 
suaded to fill an order from the maternal larder. 

Breakfast was at last finished, and numerous pipes 
were smoked to kill time until the rain should cease, but 
still it poured down with such steady persistency, that it 
had its effect even upon the buoyant spirits of the quar- 
tette. The sole objects of interest which presented them- 
7 



I46 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

selves were boats laden with hay which drove past the 
tent-door down the river before the wind. These the 
Commodore sketched with the adjoining result, and then 




Aristocratic. 



relapsing into a state of demoralization was maliciously 
portrayed by the artist on page 147. At length the show- 
ers became intermittent, and the two division command 




Plebeian. 

ers sallied forth in different directions to collate informa- 
tion regarding the rapids. 

" One charm of the character of your true rural," 
remarked the Commodore, on their return to compare 
notes, " is that he is unconventional. When you have 
learned the opinions of one, upon matters about him, 



I48 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

you are not justified in accepting them as those of the 
community at large." 

" Very true," said ths Vice. " I have spent two 
hours in interviewing the honest villagers near the water- 
side, to ascertain if the rapids, which begin a short half 
mile below, are passable, and from no two of them did I 
get the same reply. One said yes, another said no, a 
third looked doubtful, a fourth encouraging, number five 
was dumb, and from a dozen or two others I obtained 
enough of shrugs, gestures, and facial contortions to 
supply the clown of a pantomime. So little recks your 
true rural of what doesn't particularly concern him that 
one fellow, who works in a flour-mill, informed me that 
there were no rapids whatever, any where in the river." 

" Proof positive that he doesn't pay taxes upon prop- 
erty," said the Commodore. " The tax-collector is the 
grand educator upon local geography : hence, the most 
intelligent nations of Europe are those which are taxed 
heaviest." 

" The Turks, for instance," suggested the Vice. " I 
accept your theory, however, for the sake of offering it 
back to you as proof positive that we Americans are the 
most intelligent people on the face of the globe." 

" The exact bearings of taxation upon the passability 
of rapids," said the Commodore, " may be clear to a 
statesman's mind, but the editorial brain fails to record 
any impression regarding it. The question is, are we to 
run the rapids or pass around them by canal ? I propose 



A COUNCIL OF WAR. I49 

first to listen to the counsels of my captains, and then to 
act according to my own. Officers will speak in reverse 
order of rank. Cook?" 

" Run the rapids by all means," promptly replied the 
Cook, who had no nautical reputation to lose, but might 
gain an immense amount without exceeding the demand. 

" Purser?" said the Commodore. 

The custodian of the fleet's treasure tossed his 
auburn locks gaily behind his ears, and replied, 

" As well ask the bird if it would soar heavenward, 
the imprisoned soul if it would yearn for light, the poet 
if he would seek his ideal ! " 

" Or a duck could he swim," put in the Vice. 

" Do you mean that you prefer to run the rapids?" 
asked the Commodore. 

" Certainly," replied the Purser. 

" Say so, then," said the Commodore, with editorial 
sternness, " Vice ? " 

" The one delight of a canoe cruise," said the Vice, 
" is to run rapids. I don't know of another joy that com- 
pares with it, unless it be that of a Presidential campaign 
full of personalities." 

" I decide in favor of the canal," said the Commo- 
dore. " My duty to society demands it. Moreover, I 
encountered this morning a large number of natives, all 
of whom without a single exception assured me that the 
rapids could not be run. Running unknown rapids is 
attended by considerable danger, and while the loss of a 



150 CANOEING IN KANUCKFA. 

Statesman, an Artist or a Scribbler might be a blessing to 
suffering humanity, an Editor cannot be spared. Editors 
are born, not made, and are consequently very rare." 

" Which fact, like that of the crocodile destroying its 
young," remarked the Vice, " is a proof of the merciful 
interposition of Providence to save the human race from 
what might otherwise be a terrible scourge." 

As the natives had missed neither spoons, poultry 
nor any other easily secreted property during the night, 
they viewed the departing fleet with kindly eyes, and 
pressed sundry favors upon it. The expedition at- 
tempted to advance in column under sail, but it speedily 
became involved in difficulties with sundry saw-logs and 
slightly submerged ropes, until all available seamanship 
was called into exercise to avoid humiliating disaster. 
When the entrance to the canal was reached, the 
navigators discovered that the water was spanned, at 
short intervals, by bridges not only so low as to compel 
the striking of masts, but also to necessitate the striking 
of signal staffs fore and aft, and the temporary assump- 
tion, by the various commanders, of a physical attitude 
most truly devout. As the fourth bridge was approached 
by the expedition, it was also reached by an industrious 
shower, and no one made haste to pass from under the 
cover afforded by the structure. 

" Think of the poor sailors on the broad ocean, with 
no bridge to shelter them," remarked the Cook, as he 
improved the opportunity to light a peaceful pipe. Just 



A LEAKY ROOF. 151 

then a small stream of water, in search of its final level, 
meandered between two planks of the bridge, and trickled 
into the Cook's pipe, producing a sizzle which seemed to 
greatly titillate the nerves of those who were not smok- 
ing. Then another stream struck the helmet of the Vice 
and broke into what would have been a graceful cascade 
had not its perfect curve been broken by the official 
nose. The Purser bowed his head to avoid showing 
unseemly merriment at the expense of his superior offi- 
cer, when another stream, heavily charged with the soil 
which wagons had deposited upon the bridge, insinuated 
itself between his shirt and his skin. Then began a mag- 
nificent but ineffectual struggle of mind against matter. 
Given, a bridge the planks of which were not more than 
ten inches wide, and several men whose shoulders ex- 
ceeded in width'any two of the planks, and whose depth 
of chest, with its environment, also exceeded the dis- 
tance between any two cracks, and the reader will per- 
ceive, more freely than by any logical form of demonstra- 
tion, the utter futility of free will in a contest against 
destiny. The best that man can do in such an unequal 
conflict is to prepare himself as well as possible for the 
blow, and this the Commodore did by throwing a rubber 
poncho (a square sheet with a hole in the middle) over his 
head, the ends dropping outside the gunwales of the 
boat, and shedding the water into the canal. The 
wooden decks of the Chrysalids kept water from dripping 
into the boats except amidships, the oilcloth decking of 



152 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

the flagship served a similar purpose, but the inside of 
the Cherub was soon deplorable in the extreme. 

In time the sun banished the shower, and under its 
beams the canoeists brightened sufficiently to drop into 
song, beating time with their paddles. As they ap- 
proached one bridge, and recurred to the reflection that 
civilization has its penalties as well as its pleasures, the 
keeper of the bridge good-naturedly opened it. 

" By Jove ! " exclaimed the Commodore, " no one but 
a Frenchman would have been civil enough to do that. 
Let's sing the ' Marseillaise ' for him, and remind him 
of his far distant home. Now ! 

' Allons, enfants de la patrie. 
Le jour de gloire est arrive.' " 

The song was given with spirit, and with that confi- 
dence of accent which song somehow inspires. The 
squadron, in perfect line, and keeping a rhythmic stroke 
as of one man, reached the bridge just as they struck the 

refrain, — 

" Aux armes, citoyens ! 
Formez vos battalions ! 
Marchez, marchez, qu'un sang impur, 
Abreuve nos sillons." * 

The bridge-keeper raised himself from the leaning 
position which he had at first assumed, his eye brightened, 
a flush of red showed under the dark brown o^ his cheek. 

" That's a magnificent song," he shouted in French. 
"What do you call it?" 



I 54 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

Four paddles stopped abruptly in mid-air, four men 
stared blankly at each other, then the Commodore sank 
back into his cockpit as nerveless as Salvini in the finale 
of " La Morte Civile." In a moment he recovered him- 
self enough to gasp, 

" True enough ; the ancestors of these French Cana- 
dians came over a century before Rouget de Lisle was 
born ! " 

" What ?" exclaimed the Vice, hastily backing out of 
line and turning his boat, " and that poor fellow knows 
nothing of the glory of his race, of the rights of man, and 
things ? I'll go back and enlighten him." 

"Let him alone," said the Purser. "He knows 
enough to be polite and sympathetic— to volunteer extra 
labor that others may be saved annoyance, so he knows 
more of the rights of man than you can teach him." 

The Vice meekly drew back into line, merely asking 
if it was not nearly dinner-time. As one bank of the 
canal was heavily covered with weeds, and the other was 
being frequently traversed by tow-horses, the noon-day 
meal was taken in the boats, the four being temporarily 
lashed together that the various viands might be passed 
back and forth without danger of being dropped over- 
board. The leisure consequent upon dining enabled the 
squadron to observe critically the crews of the various 
barges that passed, and to learn that although the spirit 
of trade has not altered the French canal-boatmen of 
Canada from their national model, the environment of 



PROFESSIONAL COURTESY. I 55 

circumstance has made the rider of the canal-horse like 
unto his brother navigators of all climes. The remarks 
which these gentlemen volunteered as they passed the 
squadron were all couched in the French tongue, but the 
accent was that of the Erie canal, the Delaware and Hud- 
son, and all other watery highways upon which the 
motive power is equine or mulish. 

These canalers indeed, as was quickly evident, were of 
cosmopolitan or at least of republican habit, for so per- 
sonal did their remarks become that some means of re- 
taliation or self-defence was manifestly necessary. Dig- 
nified silence is all very well, but your modern canaler 
does not appreciate it in the traditional fashion, and when 
a quiet professional gentleman is invited to " come out of 
that and have a head put on him " by a burly ruffian, it 
is apparent that the policy of silence is not always that 
of wisdom. Under these circumstances it occurred to 
the Vice, who had been a " Son of Malta," that portions 
of the extinct ritual might be made available. The 
Cook was accordingly instructed to hang the expedition- 
ary frying-pan over his forward-thwart and provide him- 
self with a short baton, wherewith to beat it after the 
manner of a Chinese gong. The next " Bargees " that we 
encountered opened the usual conversation, inquiring 
where we were from, and where bound, all which ques- 
tions were answered with due civility. Then the chaff 
element cropped out. 

"Say, Boss, whar did you get that hat?" The re- 



.156 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

mark was addressed to the Commodore who headed the 
line. In a resonant voice that officer repeated : " He 
asks where did I get my hat." 

Then the Vice, " He asks where did he get his hat ?" 
Then the Purser, " He asks where did he get his hat ?" 
Then the Cook, " He asks where did he get his hat ? " 
and then lifting his baton he proclaimed in a stento- 
rian voice RECORDED ! and mightily smote the frying-pan 
till it rung again. The invariable sequence of this was a 
momentary pause, during which the squadron usually- 
passed out of ear-shot. Sometimes however, the canalers 
attempted a continuation of the attack, as for instance : 

" Now then," (but really this part of the sentence can 
only be represented by blanks) " Come out o' that, and 
I'll learn yer." 

Commodore. " He calls us scions of a noble race." 
Vice. " He calls us scions of a noble race." 
Purser. " He calls us scions of a noble race." 
Cook. "He calls us scions of a noble race. Re- 
corded ! Whang ! ! " 

"The recorded answer turneth away chaff," said the 
Vice somewhat irreverently after the success of the ex- 
periment was established, and so it was, for the profane 
resources of the most fluent mule-driver failed him in 
the presence of the frying-pan. 

Soon after dinner the squadron approached a lock, 
and the Commodore went ashore to exhibit the passes of 
his command. As the collective measurement of the 



PASSING THE LOCKS. 157 

boats did not reach ten tons, the four had been included 
in a single pass, the cost of which was twenty cents, and 
this sufficed for the dozen locks which were to be passed 
before the smooth water of the river could again be 
reached. It was probably a realization of the small 
amount of money which their labor represented which 
made the various lock-keepers so solemn of mien as they 
labored over their gates to let the Liliputian squadron 
through. The walls of each lock were substantially built 
of huge blocks of grey stone, and as the water subsided 
rapidly the Artist imagined himself being let down into a 
dark dungeon. He hastily drew his portfolio from a 
locker, and proceeded to sketch a study for a " Prisoner 
of Chillon," hugging the shady side of the lock as he did 
so. The sketch proceeded to his satisfaction, and then 
some loose earth behind the stones ejected through a 
crack some of its superfluous moisture in a parabolic 
curve over the Artist's shoulder, and upon the sketch, 
putting in some half tints which gave the picture an air 
of extreme realism and antiquity. 

Reaching at length a long stretch of canal upon which 
no boats were visible, the squadron disembarked and 
washed its respective faces with soap, an operation ren- 
dered necessary by the drippings it had encountered 
under the bridge, and during the various showers. An 
hour later, the face of the Vice looked as if it had been 
liberally but carelessly patched with court-plaster. Frag- 
ments of skin fluttered aimlesslv from his cheeks and 



158 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

brow, while his Roman nose was as picturesque as the 
brown shoulders of a tramp who had lately begged a very 
ragged white shirt. The Vice became conscious that he 
was attracting attention, and a pocket-mirror, furtively 
consulted, revealed to him the cause. He passed his 
mirror to the others, and the merriment of the party came 
to a sudden stop, for every one else was displaying symp- 
toms of impending trouble of the same sort. Not one of 
them had experienced an hour of sunshine a day for 
months ; their faces had been burning steadily for days, 
and the alkali of the soap had destroyed the last bond 
between the burned cuticle and that beneath. The Pur- 
ser suggested that cold cream, being peculiarly a French 
production, could doubtless be found in the next village, 
but the Vice said him nay. 

" Frenchmen who don't know the Marseillaise when 
they hear it," said he, " can't be expected to know any- 
thing about the appliances of modern civilization." 

The morning's rain, the late start and sundry delays 
had hindered the fleet more than it realized, and the sun 
was setting before the canal was half-way passed. It 
became necessary therefore to camp on the canal bank, 
but this was no great hardship, as a smooth strip of green 
sward opportunely presented itself on the side away from 
the tow-path, as shown at the left of this sketch. A moral 
title is appended to this illustration because the Vice 
went off by himself after supplies and came back 
thoroughly sobered, as he intimated, by the sublime 



l6o CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

immensity of the canal, which, he said, stretched away 
before him like the narrow path which he remem- 
bered as depicted in the " Pilgrim's Progress " of his 
boyhood. 

Indeed there was a pastoral beauty about this canal 
which one is not apt to associate with artificial water- 
ways. It was but a few miles in length and skirted a 
lovely valley, rich in historic association and beautifully 
diversified by wood and meadow, hill and stream. Be- 
yond the lowlands, as shown in the sketch, rose a com- 
manding and somewhat isolated mountain range which 
caught the last rays of the setting sun, and welcomed 
him again in the morning in such charming fashion that 
it was simple luxury to exist within the range of its influ- 
ence. Since crossing the line, too, minor incidents of daily 
recurrence recalled the fact that this valley was first pene- 
trated by emissaries of " Mother Church." On every 
side the little tin covered spires, one just like the other, 
arose, and at sunrise and sunset, the matin and vesper 
bells sent their notes far and near, reminding all within 
range that the priest was at the altar holding aloft the 
sacred emblems and repeating the angelus. The mem- 
bers of the expedition were all Protestants by birth and 
association, but there was not one of them who had not 
a tender spot in his heart when the bells rang out and he 
knew that hundreds of fellow beings, far and near, paused 
a moment at their tasks to repeat the prayer that the 
church had taught them to say. These little churches, of 



MOTHER CHURCH. 



161 



which this may serve as a type, form a charming feature 
of the Acadian land. You may walk into any of them 
at any hour, and some are very quaint, and in a strange 
fashion touching, in their interior design and adornment. 
It seemed as though the prayers of generations of simple 
minded folk were imprisoned there, willing and ever 
anxious to get up to heaven, if that were possible, and 




The Typical Church. 

yet hampered somehow so that they did not make it out. 
Often as one or another of the quartette strolled into 
a village church and sat down in the suggestive silence, 
a man or woman would come in and kneeling repeat a 
prayer. To say that the act is mechanical and heartless 
is not to the purpose. It may be both mechanical and 
heartless, but it is not meaningless, and through it and 
other like observances, the church retains a tolerably 



1 62 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

stronghold upon a very considerable fraction of Christen- 
dom. Would that the home-feeling could be as successfully 
cultivated by some of our Protestant sects as it seems to 
be by the church of Rome. Perhaps however the home 
feeling as it there exists is incompatible with advanced 
thought, and the liquefaction of gases, and Boston Mon- 
day Lectures. 

So at least the Vice was remarking when he suddenly 
became aware that a canal-propeller was coming down 
his recent straight and narrow path, towing behind her an 
endless chain of lumber barges. Anxiety for the boats 
banished every other sentiment. The Red Lakers were 
confidently trusted to take care of themselves by their 
commanders, but Chrysalids must be carefully tended and 
held offshore, lest the swell should dash them against the 
stone facing of the embankment. Considering what the 
Rochefort had been through on her various lee shores, 
this solicitude seemed rather superfluous. Furthermore, 
no perceptible swell was caused by the passage of the 
tow, and the only notable result was that the Purser, in 
his anxiety to hold the Arethusela off shore with a boat- 
hook, lost his balance and took a ducking, much to the 
amusement of spectators on the canal boats. 

An exquisite moonlit night was this on the canal. 
The tent stood white against the grassy bank, the canal 
glittered, from far away could be heard the hoarse roar of 
rapids, and farther still the blue mountain range rose flat 
against the sky as if it had no irregularities save those 



A PRETTY GIRL. 1 63 

which marked its outline. Only one anxiety marred the 
serenity of the fleet. 

Ever since " the Enchantress " arose upon its horizon, 
one member of the command who shall be nameless, had 
not been quite in his right mind. While passing along 
the canal, he had evinced a preference for such airs as 
" Annie Laurie " and " The Girl I left behind Me," while 
the " Mulligan Guards " and the Marseillaise failed to stir 
his soul as was their wont. This evening he passed walk- 
ing up and down the canal bank in the moonlight, apart 
from the rest, and he was even suspected of declaiming 
poetry sotto-voce. There the squadron left him when it 
turned in. 

After a long interval of quiet, no one knows what the 
hour was, the sleepers were softly awakened by the en- 
thusiast, who by the straggling moonbeams was seen with 
a finger on his lips as an injunction of silence, while with 
the other hand he pointed toward the remains of the 
camp-fire in front of the tent. Each man arose noise- 
lessly ; one softly cocked his revolver, another grasped a 
boat hook, while a third clutched two empty beer-bottles, 
stole out of the tent, and peered warily about, in the 
shadows of the trees. Each man saw that the boats were 
safe, and as all cargoes had been removed to the tent 
before nightfall, the nature of the danger which impended 
could not be imagined by any one. The demented man 
threw several twigs upon the smouldering embers, thus 
making a bright light ; then he squatted near the fire, 



164 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

motioned to the others to take similar attitudes, and 
spoke thus to his mystified auditors : 

" Gentlemen, for years I have endeavored to formulate 
a definition of the phrase ' pretty girl ;' not to give 
a mere literal description, but one which should be 
artistic as well as truthful, and have the virtue, peculiar 
to all true art, of suggesting more than it says. At last 
I have fully succeeded ; or, rather, a glorious inspiration 
has enlightened me. Before disclosing this marvel of 
truth and poetry, I beg you to give me your own defini- 
tions of the same precious phrase — they will be useful by 
way of contrast." 

u I can better tell you what a pretty girl is not" an- 
swered one of the party promptly. " She is not an imbe- 
cile who rouses people at dead of night for the idiotic 
purpose of revising standard lexicography." 

" Nor is she," quoth another, who, being a very light 
sleeper, sprang to his feet, in a violent fit of trembling, on 
being aroused, " nor is she a being who will in cold blood 
frighten an honest fellow almost to death." 

" Nor a person whose literary musings disturb the 
slumber of any one, unless, haply, he be editor of a paper 
containing a poet's column," said the third. 

" Listen, then," replied the lunatic, his look of scorn 
giving place to a lambent light from within, which irradi- 
ated his pale features. '* A pretty girl is a person from 
whose glass you are willing to drink, after she is done 
with it." 



THE REMEDY. 1 65 

For several moments there was dead silence, then 
somebody asked in the iciest of tones, 

" And you aroused us only for the purpose of impart- 
ing this." 

" I did." 

" Have I offered you a single affront since the cruise 
began ?" asked another. " I certainly have tried hard to 
do my duty, and have never discriminated knowingly 
against any one." 

" You are guiltless," was the reply. 

11 I suppose I am the guilty one," groaned the third. 
" I gave him a cigar to-day which was not what it should 
have been. But how out of all proportion to the offence 
is the punishment ! " 

The object of these denunciations, remaining un- 
changed of mien, began again to pace the bank beneath 
the moon-beams, while his companions returned to their 
blankets and failed miserably to devise any vengeance 
commensurate with his shameful act. 

At length the wisest of the trio, raising himself on his 
elbow, exclaimed " I have it — make him marry one." 



X. 



ACADIA. 

AT length the voyagers seemed really in Acadia. A 
large village at the lower end of the canal exhibited 
in charming profusion the red-tiled roofs, white stuccoed 
cottages, and verandahs peculiar to French village archi- 
tecture ; all signs over the shop-doors were in French, 
and nearly all of them indicated that spirituous liquors 
were sold there ; the native stare was of short duration 
and respectful, instead of long drawn and insolent, as it 
would have been at any canal terminus in the United 
States, and the village dogs did not respond to whistles 
delivered in the American manner. A single new house 
with Mansard roof had intruded itself in the village, but 
the Cook promptly suggested that it must belong to 
some fugitive American statesman, so it could not be 
considered as part of the village proper. 

At this suggestion the Vice became pensive and was 
presently discovered questioning a resident as to the 
personal appearance of certain American sojourners. 
His curiosity was pardonable as he had been conspicuous 
in breaking up a famous metropolitan Ring, and knew 
personally some of its fugitive fragments. 



SIGNS OF DECADENCE. 1 67 

No factory reared its horrid front aloft, so the village 
maidens were meek-eyed and healthy, and the young 
men did not congregate at street corners with hands in 
pockets. Two or three score of men stood upon the walls 
of the final lock, to look at the boats, but they displayed 
none of the officious curiosity which any able-bodied 
American citizen would have considered necessary under 
like circumstances. To the Commodore, the Purser and 
the Cook the change from the restless activity with 
which they were familiar was inexpressibly delightful, 
but the Vice regarded everything with cold suspicion. 

" The natural result of monarchical rule," was his inces- 
sant comment upon whatever he saw. " There is water- 
power enough going to waste,'' said he, pointing to the 
rapids, " for a manufacturing city such as the world has 
never seen. Capital would be attracted, labor would 
follow, facilities for navigation would increase, farmers 
would have a home market for their produce, real estate 
would increase in value, and local politics would become 
a science. But see it as it is! Why, I doubt if it has a 
board of aldermen, or even a mayor ! " 

" Then it is Acadia indeed," murmured the Purser, 
raising his head from a sketch he had hastily made of 
a sweet-faced girl who was gazing wonderingly yet 
modestly from a window. 

From the river below the lock the expedition saw 
the foot of the rapids, and near them a ruined fort. A 
double invitation to view the picturesque was not to be 



A RUINED FORT. 1 69 

declined, so every one paddled up as far as the rapids 
would allow. The fort bore date of 171 1, and tradition 
said that it had been constructed for defence against 
the Indians, in the days when Canada was still New 
France, from which it was safe to infer that the North 
American savage was not in the habit of rounding rapids by 
canal when he disported himself in his light canoe. The 
work had been stripped to its bare walls, not by relic-hunt- 
ers but by searchers after seasoned fuel, and its water-wall 
had fallen in, but enough remained to show the plan 
of the work. The Commodore and the Purser broiled in 
the sun at the gateless sally-port and endeavored to 
reconstruct the work in the interest of romance. They 
filled it with picturesque men-at-arms, gallant officers, 
and venerable priests, and took care not to omit the 
occasional Indian maiden, while the Vice calculated the 
cost of transforming the work into a distillery, and the 
Cook, who had climbed to a sealed loophole overhead 
in search of reflections which did not appear, gently led 
the thoughts of the romancers back to the real by an 
occasional shower of partly pulverized mortar. 

It presently occurred to him, however, that the stock 
of bread was running low, only one loaf being left from 
the supply laid in beyond the line. , He accordingly made 
a requisition on the Purser for the necessary funds and 
paddled off to the village. In a few moments he was 
seen returning, partly concealed behind something which 
he had placed on the forward deck. As the bow touched 
8 



KANUCK BREAD I J I 

the sand the mysterious object was seen to be merely a 
loaf of bread beside which, for the sake of contrast, the 
Cook had laid the remaining loaf of the United States 
pattern. 

The Vice regarded the two with a puzzled air. " Why," 
he asked, Cl should forty millions of people living in a free 
republic, be content with loaves of such diminutive size 




Two Loaves— a Contrast. 

when the subjects of a despotic monarchy are provided 
with bread on a scale so truly magnificent? " 

" The loaves are to one another in an inverse propor- 
tion to the population which they represent," said the 
Cook. 

In quality and price, this loaf compares favorably with 
that of the American baker, but in size and shape it is 
unlike anything that elsewhere exists under the same 
name. Its shape is that of a cloven mountain, and its 
size — well, if such loaves were used in Judea eighteen 
hundred years ago, the miracle of the feeding of the five 
thousand would not seem so very wonderful after all. A 
single loaf materially increased the draft of the Cook's 
boat, and had he bought four, as he had expected to do, it 
would have been necessary to have chartered a store-ship. 



172 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

As the party sat in the shadow of one of the water 
bastions and viewed the rapids in their changing forms 
but changeless beauty, the Vice fell into gloomy reverie. 

" It's always so," said he. " We've paddled through a 
straight cut canal for ten miles, been drenched with water 
and wind, jeered by mule-drivers, and in French, too, — 
loosened the skin from our faces, caused heaven only 
knows how much inward profanity among lock-keepers, 
lost a whole day and ten miles of scenery, and all because 
we were afraid to run the rapids, which would have 
brought us here in an hour. It's the same way in politics ; 
caution means labor and trouble, but if you dash ahead 
in spite of every thing and every body, you're sure to 
come out all right. The Alderman always said — ■" 

" It isn't too late yet," interrupted the Commodore. 
" I am so desirous of seeing some one run those rapids 
that I will be one of any two to carry your boat as far up 
the stream as you like, if you will run down in her." 

" Agreed ! " shouted the Vice, " but — " here he pru- 
dently admitted to himself the defects of the model of 
his boat, " I wonder if the Cook wouldn't rather do it in 
the Cherub — you will find it far the easier to carry." 

" Certainly," replied the Cook ; " besides, she is far 
safer, faster and more manageable than your craft. She 
has no keel to catch upon a rock and tip one over, and 
her peculiar construction makes it impossible to start a 
leak, no matter how hard you may strike a stone with 
her." 



THE RAPIDS. 173 

The Cherub was promptly unloaded and carried up 
the stream half a mile, when the Cook seeing an almost 
unbroken line of rocks crossing the river, stopped her 
bearers. He then divested himself of all clothing except 
such as is technically denominated " gents underwear." 
The boat was placed in the water, heading up stream, and 
the Cook embarked, bracing his back against the amid- 
ship thwart, and his knees against the sides. The painter 
was thrown in, and he started to paddle out into the 
stream, but the current was in the habit of working its own 
sweet will upon floating bodies, and it promptly signified 
as much to the Cook by whirling him around so rapidly 
that the force of rotary motion almost deprived him of 
his scalp and whiskers — his helmet he had thoughtfully 
left ashore. Then the boat danced merrily along, salut- 
ing each inviting rock with a long soft caress, yet obeying 
the paddle with an alacrity of which no Chrysalid canoe 
could ever be capable. The time occupied by the trip 
seemed so great to the Cook, that a thousand years added 
or subtracted would have had no perceptible influence 
upon the total ; according to the Commodore's pulse, 
however, (all watches having stopped) rather less than 
four minutes had elapsed since the start when the Cook 
paddled the Cherub up to the smooth beach below the 
rapid, and found that she had not shipped a drop of 
water, nor started, in striking the rocks, anything more 
important than varnish. 

The four sat for a while longer under the shadow of 



A HIGH TEMPERATURE. 175 

the main gateway, and then proceeded on their way in 
order to reach a camping ground not in the immediate 
vicinity of any village. 

Upon the broad basin into which the river spread 
below the fort, the sun shone with a fierceness which set 
at naught the vulgar theory that solar heat decreases as 
one goes northward. The voyagers decided, without a dis- 
senting voice, that the isothermal line which reached this 
portion of Canada was that of the Desert of Sahara, and 
the Vice, whose scientific ideas were rather vague, sug- 
gested that it had probably passed through several blast- 
furnaces and a ratification meeting on its way north. A 
gentle breeze finally came to the relief of the party, 
and at the same time there came certain of the natives to 
inquire about the speed, etc., of the boats, and as the 
river at this point was very wide, and the canoeists were 
not averse to displaying their seamanship, the boats were 
soon doing the picturesque to the delight of all beholders. 
Suddenly, however, the breeze took offence at something 
and vanished, leaving the boats a mile or two from shore. 
Paddles were manfully plied, the nearest shade upon the 
banks being several miles away. As no one but a denizen 
of the abode of the finally impenitent could realize what 
the heat of that afternoon actually was, it is extremely 
unlikely that the tale will ever be told, but the Purser 
solemnly declares unto this day that the sleeve of his blue 
flannel shirt was scorched by the sun. 

The fresh meat purchased at the end of the canal 



176 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

having succumbed to the heat, the expedition went out 
in a body, on making camp, in search of animal food. 
The nearest house seemed miles away, so the Vice took 
to his favorite pastime of trolling for pickerel, the Purser 
went into the forest with the Vice's gun, and the Commo- 
dore and the Cook started, with boat-hooks, to secure 
bullfrogs for a fricassee. The Vice caught nothing, as 
men universally do when they troll, the Purser got noth- 
ing but a bruised shoulder, while the Commodore and the 
Cook, having failed to secure so much as a single 
batrachian, lost what little character they had for per- 
severance under difficulties, and swore roundly that the 
French inhabitants had hunted the frogs till they were 
too shy to be successfully harpooned. The voyagers fell 
back upon their canned provisions, made a tolerably satis- 
factory supper and straightway engaged in a discussion 
on the kinds of wood available in that most important 
branch of industry, the construction of canoes, and their 
accessories. 

American white-cedar, they concluded, is undoubtedly 
the best of all woods for building light boats. It is now 
exported for this purpose to all parts of the world where 
artistic boat-building is practiced. Its structure is such 
that a blow or scrape, such as boats are likely to receive, 
merely indents without splintering or splitting. It is 
moreover very light. It has no special beauty of grain 
but takes varnish well and has an agreeable color, which 
improves with age. 



178 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

Oak is handsomer in appearance, but is too heavy and 
splinters badly at the edges when exposed to wear and 
tear. It is usually the best available wood for keels and 
timbers. 

Spanish cedar splits too easily to be used for planking, 
but makes a handsome deck, and is strong enough when 
properly supported by carlines. 

Butternut is a little heavier than cedar, but is some- 
what harder and tougher, and is far more beautiful in 
color and grain. In point of texture and toughness there, 
is small choice between the two. If one is willing to 
paddle a pound or two of additional weight for the sake 
of appearances, let him choose butternut. If not, white 
cedar is best. Clear butternut can be had in longer and 
wider strips than cedar. 

For stem and stern posts hackmatack is given the 
preference, by nearly all builders. For the timbers, 
carlines, and interior braces of all sorts, tough, non- 
splitable woods are used, different builders having differ- 
ent favorites. 

The masts technically denominated the " main " and 
" dandy," may be of white-ash, spruce or pine — the last 
being lightest and weakest. They should be carried 
up without any taper, a short distance above the deck 
— say three feet for the main and two for the dandy. 
This is not very essential, it merely makes them bend 
more symmetrically under sail pressure. Ash is heavier 
than spruce, but more slender and graceful spars may be 



MASTS AND RIGGING. 179 

made from it, owing to its greater strength. The Com- 
modore having tried both, rather prefers ash. Some 
members of the New York Club have used bamboo for 
masts with satisfactory results ; for its weight it is cer- 
tainly the strongest of spars, and in appearance it is 
all that can be desired, except that it does not taper 
quite enough at the top to suit a fastidious eye. This 
objection might be overcome by using a topmast of 
pine or spruce. 

It is almost always convenient to have the masts of a 
canoe jointed, so that they can be readily stowed be- 
low decks. The simplest and cheapest way is to place 
the mast so that it shall be an inch and a quarter or less 
at the joint, that being the largest regular size of fishing- 
rod ferrules. Such joints have been fully tested and are 
strong enough. The device known as the " sliding gun- 
ter " is a brass fitting which holds the main topmast and 
slides up and down the mainmast, operated by a halyard. 
It works very well when in perfect order, but is apt to 
give trouble when the parts get wet. Moreover it neces- 
sitates a clumsily large lower-mast, since this part must 
be deeply grooved to receive the topmast-halyard over 
which the " gunter " slides. The Vice who has tried the 
sliding gunter rig has decided to adopt a simple nine-foot 
mast with a mainsail like that shown in the illustration 
on page 107, and a ferrule joint. The sail runs up and 
down on rings as do those of the Red Lakers, and hav- 
ing throat and peak halyards attached to the gaff, the 



i8o 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



peak can be dropped or raised without lowering the sail. 
This has the effect of reefing and shaking out without 
the bother of tying the reef-points shown in the sketch 
referred to, on the lower part of the mainsail. 

The Red Lakers, by the way, are reefed by means of 
a small brass S. hook carried at the peak of each sail. 
The sail is lowered away and this hook passed through 
any one of the rings on which it runs. When hoisted 
again the sail is of course correspondingly reduced in area. 

It was ten o'clock before the squadron had settled all 
this and was content to turn in. 




XL 

SEVERAL OTHER DAYS. 

THE disgust of the voyagers on the next morning, 
when they found themselves reduced to break- 
fasting on bread and coffee, was provocative of vigorous 
paddling, and a large town was soon reached. The voy- 
agers passed en route a small Indian camp, in which were 
exhibited some of the positive results of civilized environ- 
ment, for one of the men had a beard, and the only visible 
squaw wore an apron with pockets. As the town was 
one at v/hich the expedition expected many letters, there 
was a movement in force upon the post-office, which con- 
sisted of two cigar boxes upon the table of a sitting-room ; 
one of these contained letters received, and the other mail 
matter to be transmitted ; one contained, after the expe- 
dition had received its letters, a single postal card, and 
the other, when the voyagers deposited their home and 
business correspondence, was so full that the pleasant lady 
in charge was visibly affected by the sudden increase of 
business. There were several streets of very old and 
very quaint cottages, and a church, externally a duplicate 
of every other church on the river, and containing an odd 
yet touching assortment of votive offerings. Among 



1 82 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

these was a huge model of a full-rigged ship ; this swung 
aloft from the centre of the ceiling, and doubtless kept 
nervous worshippers from the pews directly beneath it. 
The value of such an object of contemplation must be 
inestimable for the adolescent portion of the congrega- 
tion, that is if the Acadian fancy is as much given over 
to dreams of piratical adventure on the high seas, as is 
that of American youth. 

Three women were upon their knees in the church ; 
two were utterly oblivious to the entrance of the outland- 
ish foreign quartette, but the third kept alive the faith 
of man in womanish curiosity, for she stared at the party 
as long as it was visible. The four sailors walked around 
the side aisles past the " Stations of the Cross," more, it 
must be admitted, from longings artistic rather than de- 
vout, and were about to leave the church, when two 
bright looking youths of seventeen or eighteen entered 
the organ loft, and sang several hymns, accompanying 
themselves with the organ which was presumably blown 
by a third. The Vice interviewed them and asked what 
portion of the service they had been conducting, and 
learned that they had been singing merely for amuse- 
ment. Fancy two healthy young Americans going into 
church during business hours, and singing hymns for pur- 
poses of personal diversion ! Their associates would 
promptly cut their acquaintance, their employers would 
discharge them for laziness, and their parents, if truly 
affectionate, would hasten to call a physician skilled in 



THE RAILWAY HOTEL. 1 83 

treating the victims of mental aberration. The quartette 
concluded that their fond imaginings regarding the uses 
of aerial ships had been at fault. Maritime adventure 
can have no place in the Acadian mind. 

A careful survey of the picturesque little hamlet 
showed that it was infested, though not infected, by a 
railroad ; from this the whole village shrunk away, so that 
a modern " Railway Hotel," which stood near the sta- 
tion, stood alone, in unrelieved ugliness. The Vice, with 
his prejudice against every thing foreign, insisted upon 
the expedition dining at this hotel, because it reminded 
him of home, and within half an hour he endured the 
worst meal that had ever been set before him. The 
Cook, who had been detailed to watch the boats while his 
associates dined, sank into a peaceful slumber in the 
Cherub, and became an object of interest to several 
natives and many hundreds of flies. The former, though 
somewhat curious, were too polite to arouse the sleeping 
watchman, but the latter being evidently summer visitors 
from the States, had neither conscience nor modesty, so 
the slumberer awoke and devoted some moments to 
drowsy sympathy for the defunct Pharaoh and his people 
who suffered under the seventh plague. Then he paced 
the river-bank, looking about for the picturesque, and 
was rewarded by a glimpse of the old, old story, which 
went down the river road between a bashful young man 
and a comely maiden. 

Near this point the river contained several beautiful 



1 84 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

islands, and to one of these the squadron made its way 
after dinner. The distance was small — a mere matter of 
five miles — but the fact that it had to be traversed by 
paddle and under a blazing sun, caused the trip to 
seem fully long enough for an afternoon voyage. A de- 
lightful camping ground was finally reached, however; a 
narrow grassy plateau spreading itself under a belt of 
thick trees, with lovely outlooks up and down the river. 
It was the Commodore's tour of duty for forage, and 
after a lesson in Canadian French from the Vice, who had 
it at second hand from the Alderman, he paddled over to 
the mainland. The substance of his instructions was that 
milk instead of being " lait " was " lat," sounding the 
final "T," also that the final "S" was in most cases 
sounded. He tried the nearest house. 

" Bon jour, Madame. Avez vous du lat, a vendre ?" 
Glances exchanged among the members of the household 
with frequent repetitions of the word " lat." 

" Comment, M'sieu ? " 

The Commodore repeated the sentence. Same effect. 

" Ne comprens pas." 

Another trial with some changes of structure and pro- 
nunciation. 

" M'sieu, we no speak Anglais." 

The Commodore went his way to the next house, half 
a mile distant, and protected by a black dog of great 
apparent enterprise. Interview substantially duplicated. 

At the third house the discovery was made that the 



THE COMMODORE GOES FOR MILK. 185 

Alderman's information as to the pronunciation of " lait" 
uas erroneous. 

Pronouncing the word in usual manner he was readily 
understood, but there was no milk to be had. So he 
paddled over to the island again and approached the 
somewhat "swell " mansion of the proprietor, which had 
been shunned in the first instance because the occupants 
of such mansions not infrequently scorn the advances of 
canoeists in the direction of supplies. Ascending a foot- 
path from the landing, the Commodore found himself 
before a square brick house standing in the midst of 
forest trees, many being superb specimens of spruce and 
balsam, which sent their perfect spires of green sixty or 
seventy feet upward. The underbrush had been cleared 
away, so that a somewhat broken lawn spread from the 
house to the edge of the bluff, and through the tree-trunks 
there opened an expanse of rich meadow-land dotted 
with cottages crossed by lines of dark coniferous woods, 
and backed by the blue Belceil range. Lost in the con- 
templation of the delicious landscape, the Commodore 
was for a time merged in the love of nature, but a rude 
interruption was in store for him. No sign of human life 
had been visible when he turned his back upon the house 
and became absorbed in the contemplation of the beauti- 
ful, but a sudden bark rang upon the air and was in- 
stantly taken up, as it seemed from all parts of the island. 
The case of James Fitzjames and the ambuscaded 
Highlanders flashed through his mind as a parallel one : 



A REVULSION OF FEELING. 1 87 

" Instant through copse and heath arose 
Bonnets and spears and bended bows." 

He turned from the scene which the Artist has depicted 
and beheld what is shown on the following page. The 
apparent relative dimensions of himself and the dogs are 
faithfully preserved. 

On they came, but by this time the Commodorial 
soul had returned from its aesthetic wanderings. If there 
is one thing of which he is less afraid than another, it is 
dogs. Consequently when the leader, a shaggy brute of 
great external ferocity, reached him, he remarked in a low 
tone of voice, " One moment, old chap. You are mak- 
ing a great mistake. It is all right. I am going to the 
house for milk." " Major," for that turned out to be his 
name, accepted the explanation with perfect courtesy, told 
his followers that it wasn't the fellow he thought, and 
would they hush their noise, and so all fared along to- 
gether with occasional growls from still suspicious mem- 
bers of the cortege, and turned the corner of the house, 
where were seen two seemly maidens o( the peasant 
class, sitting on a verandah with their needle-work. 

" Bon jour, Mesdemoiselles," said the Commodore, 
raising his helmet. " Nous sommes campe la-bas, et 
nous avons besoin de lait, de pain et de beurre." The 
last few words had a reassuring Olendorfesque sound, 
which, as it were, set the speaker on his pins. 

The girls looked at one another doubtfully, " II parle 
Allemand, n'est ce pas, Louise? " said one. 



THE COMMODORE ESSAYS FRENCH. 1 89 

" Mais non,"said the other, " Je crois que c'est l'An- 
glais." 

The Commodore seated himself on the steps and 
buried his head in his hands. One of the dogs whined 
and poked a cold, sympathetic nose against his cheek. 
It presently occurred to him that the silence, which was 
becoming embarrassing, was in danger of being broken by 
the irrepressible laughter of the young women, who con- 
tinued their work with mischievous glances at their dis- 
comfited visitor. The Commodore is a bashful man, and 
it has always seemed to him that the laughter of girls 
is particularly and peculiarly derisive. However, by dint 
of frequent repetitions of " pain " " beurre" and " lait," 
he at length succeeded in making himself understood. 

The two girls bestirred themselves to procure the 
desired articles, which by the way proved to be of excel- 
lent quality and of absurdly low price. Meanwhile the 
dogs had become so friendly as to be troublesome, and 
the two biggest were actually fighting for the privilege of 
receiving personal attention. 

On hearing of this experience, the Purser, who is very 
fond of dogs, was anxious to be detailed for milk at once, 
and the Vice, who is, 

th Steel amid the din of arms 
And wax amid the fair," 

longed to air his French in connection with the girls, 
whom the Commodore represented as possessed of rare 
charms and engaging manners. It was evident that 



I90 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

there would be no trouble about the milk detail at this 
camp. Indeed a rivalry sprang up between the Purser 
and the Vice which was only kept within bounds by the 
necessity of a co-partnership, one being as hopelessly 
embarrassed in canine society as was the other in that 
of young women. It followed as a natural result that 
they invariably went for milk in company and were a 
long time in getting it. The Vice's French was culti- 
vated to a degree which left him without a rival in the 
fleet, while the two always came back to camp with a 
retinue of dogs which nearly drove the Cook crazy by 
investigating the expeditionary stores. 

On the grassy plateau before mentioned, the four 
graceful boats lay side by side, and in them as the fire 
burned low, the four voyagers composed themselves to 
rest, and the Cook and Purser were lulled to slumber by 
the tones of the Vice who pointed out the constellations, 
and discoursed learnedly of the precession of the equi- 
noxes. The Commodore, who chanced to be somewhat 
wakeful, feigned an interest in astronomy, which he had 
never before displayed, and evinced such an appetite for 
sidereal nomenclature that he presently had the Vice out 
of bed, so to speak, and shiveringly endeavoring to dis- 
cover certain hypothetical stars whose locality the Com- 
modore carefully described, but which could not be seen 
from the recumbent position occupied by his companion. 
Having for a sufficient space indulged in this justifiable 
revenge for certain insubordinate acts on the part of the 



THE COOK GOES TO CHURCH. 191 

Vice, the Commodore suddenly became sleepy, and left 
the astronomer to discover the ruse at his leisure. 

The next day was Sunday and sunny, and a canvass 
of commanders showed that the squadron was Sabbata- 
rian to a degree which would almost satisfy a Pharisee. 
This feeling was so strong in the Vice, whose day it was 
to be scullion, that he volunteered to leave until Monday 
all dishes needing washing, but the Purser, who succeeded 
him with the dish-cloth, declined to exact any such ex- 
treme test of the Vice's fidelity to the fourth command- 
ment. A suggestion, by the Cook, that the officers 
should attend divine service in a body> was voted down, 
on the ground, that the nearest church, whose spire was 
plainly visible down the river, was distant more than a 
Sabbath day journey. (N. B. There was no wind, and to 
paddle back from church would be to paddle against the 
current.) But the Cook was determined to go to church. 
He shaved himself, sponged his uniform into some sem- 
blance of neatness, oiled his shoes until they lost some of 
their rusty look, emptied the baggy breast-pockets of his 
shirt, unloaded his boat, and sponged out the inside. 
Then he washed and smoothed a white handkerchief, the 
latter operation being performed by folding the kerchief, 
"four double," placing it between two folds of a sail, and 
sitting determinedly upon it for the space of half an hour. 
Then the Cook carefully disposed the handkerchief in his 
pocket, so that some inches of white corner should show 
against the dark blue of his shirt ; he bade his slothful 



I92 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

companions a reproachful farewell, shoved his boat from 
shore, and started for the sanctuary. The distance was 
at least five miles, the sun very hot, and the hour uncer- 
tain, but regarding the latter the Cook had some experi- 
ence in guessing time rudely by the apparent altitude of 
the sun, so he paddled briskly along, and though he per- 
spired freely, the fact led him to compare himself, with 
considerable satisfaction, with the early American settlers 
who endured so much discomfort rather than remain 
away from church, That he had no prayer-book, and 
was rather unfamiliar with the Mass except as a verbal 
accompaniment to some of his favorite music, did not 
distress him greatly, for in truth he was not as intent 
upon worship as he might have been. Pie had gone to 
church in French-American settlements in other days, 
and had seen how the worshippers cast off the dingy 
garments of the farm and shop, and appeared in bright 
and costly raiment, so the Cook was now going to church 
principally in search of the picturesque. At the end of 
half an hour's paddling he saw that opposite the church 
he was aiming for there was another, which had been 
hitherto hidden by the foliage upon a small island. The 
sacred edifices, with their dependent villages, seemed to 
be of equal size, and the Cook was distraught with uncer- 
tainty as to which to visit. Then along the road of one 
bank he saw many vehicles passing at the trot and full of 
people. Couldn't be? — yes, it was true — that the service 
at one church was over. The Cook hastily took a racing 



THE COOK RETURNS. I93 

stroke, and made for the other church, which was still a 
mile away, but suddenly a procession of carriages ap- 
peared from that direction. The Cook dubiously paused 
in mid-stream, endeavored to estimate the two lines of 
vehicles to ascertain which was most promising; then he 
ran his boat ashore and scrambled up the bank. A bram- 
ble claimed his handkerchief, but he did not pause to 
contest the claim ; he dashed across the dusty road, 
seated himself on the top-rail of a fence, and rigidly in- 
spected the occupants of the vehicles until of vehicles 
there were no more. Then with a sigh he descended 
from his perch and started to paddle back, against the 
current, to his camp and the hungry men for whom he 
had to prepare dinner. Even his small measure of Sab- 
batarian virtue had its reward, however, for just then 
there came along a tug towing a barge load of lumber; 
under its shady side the Cook found a convenient place 
to tie his own boat, while from the cabin- window of the 
barge, the Captain's black-eyed, black-haired wife, leaned 
and, taking the Cook for an innocent scull-racer from 
Montreal, warned him impressively against " the cheats, 
the hogs of Yankees," who would make his life miserable 
if he went on to the States. 

On reaching camp the Cook found the Commodore 
and the Vice engaged in varnishing their somewhat tar- 
nished boats, one using brown shellac, and the other, 
coach varnish of the costliest description. 

" Shellac," the Commodore was saying, " is certainly 
9 



194 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

inferior to your varnish in beauty of finish, but it dries in 
fifteen minutes, and stands water, for all that I can see, 
quite as well." 

The Vice admitted disappointment in that the var- 
nish which he had been at such pains to procure, turned a 
bluish-white color, when exposed to wet, recovering its 
lustre, however, on drying. This was certainly an ob- 
jectionable feature, and marred the complexion of the 
Rochefort in a way that was highly exasperating to her 
owner, especially when his companions jeered him on the 
number of coats with which he had covered his boat. 

" Look at my varnish," said the Cook finally after the 
others had somewhat exhausted the topic. il It is not 
shellac, neither is it coach varnish, yet the Cherub is 
arrayed in a coat which retains its lustre better than 
either of yours." 

"What is it?" 

" Even ■ Pellucidite.' I know not the process whereby 
the lac is dissolved, which forms its basis, but it stands 
water better than any other that I know of, and is no 
more expensive than the ordinary kinds." 

In fact after duly weighing the matter, the cruisers 
concluded that Pellucidite is the best varnish known to 
them for general use on canoes. It appears to be less 
affected by constant exposure than any other that they 
have tried. 

" Varnishing," said the Vice, as he lay in the shade 
and contemplated the Rochefort glittering in the sun, " is 



HIGHER CULTURE. I95 

perhaps the most ennobling way for a canoeist to spend 
his time after he has received his boat from the builder. 
Every coat you put on adds so much to her beauty. I 
believe I've gone over my boat in parts thirteen times." 

" That's one thing that I don't like about a Chrys- 
alid," said the Commodore. " Half your original outlay 
goes for fittings which it is much better fun to make 
yourself, and you have no recourse but to varnish and 
re- varnish. Now you get a Red Laker clear fore and aft — 
excepting two and a half feet of decking, at bow and 
stern, and you go to work and contrive and experiment in 
a manner highly stimulating to a properly organized mind, 
until you get her decked or covered over with a remov- 
able covering of wood or water-proof cloth, and rigged 
to suit you. I admit, though, that some people would 
rather pay more money and have less tinkering to do. 
Nevertheless I hold that tinkering is essentially a higher 
order of intellectual employment than is mere varnishing, 
admirable as that may be when used in moderation." 

"There is enough to do in all conscience," replied the 
Vice, " about a Chrysalid. Look at my hatches. They 
consumed an enormous amount of brain force in the pre- 
paration." 

As has been already stated, the Chrysalid boats have 
rather more than four feet of bow and stern devoted to 
water-tight compartments, which of course occupy a great 
deal of space, but are extremely useful in case of accident. 
These spaces the Vice had made available for light arti- 



I96 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

cles, such as extra clothing, etc., by cutting hatchways in 
his deck, and fastening them down by means of thumb- 
screws, the seams being rendered water-tight by strips of 
india rubber used as packing. Red Lakers, on the con- 
trary, have all the room they want, but their water-tight 
compartments, if they have any, are only large enough 
for the purpose of flotation. Their owners therefore are 
fain to be content with water-proof bags or sheets for 
the protection of their haberdashery. 

The charms of the natural scenery about the island 
finally lured the Vice away from the annotations which he 
was preparing for a new edition of " Jefferson's Manual," 
and he went with the Cook to explore'a beautiful creek 
which emptied opposite the camp. Its charms were 
many, and its ways as devious as those of a woman about 
whom romancers- write, so the couple followed it as a 
matter of course, until the declining sun warned them to 
return to their camp, but as they turned their boats' 
heads homeward they paddled only with leisurely strokes, 
so loth were they to leave the beautiful alternations of 
sunny hillside and shady grove, solitary giants of trees, 
and thickets full of birds, mats of lily pads, and, bars 
covered with just water enough to enhance the brilliancy 
of their shining sands. The Cook heaved a deep sigh, 
and said, 

" What a pity that this fair spot is where it is, among 
a set of peasants who are blind to its true value." 

"Indeed it is," said the Vice. " There never was a 



INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. I97 

finer bit of ground for a beer garden, and such a place 
would call for a brewery ; this, in turn, would bring out an 
opposition establishment, and malt and hops would look 
up, while coopers would find steady employment." 

" Mercy ! " murmured the Cook imploringly, " mercy !" 
" Or," continued the Vice, " it would make a beauti- 
ful park ; not large to be sure, but there is enough forest- 
land to clear, and enough bare land to plant with forest 
trees, to occupy a great many voters along about election 
time. Then the grades are such that the roads could be 
constructed only by an immense amount of work, and as 
there's no stone near by, the contract for road-filling 
would amount to a handsome thing. Properly managed, 
such a park would hold a party together for twenty 
years, unless some set of old fogies happened to impose 
a landscape gardener and architect upon the commis- 
sioners." 

The Cook made haste to quit the creek and return to 
camp, and that same evening he experienced a severe 
bilious attack. As the Purser was already ill from a 
surfeit of rice and maple syrup at dinner, and the Vice 
was rapidly succumbing to the same viands, the Commo- 
dore charged himself with preparing a supper which 
should have for its principal feature an entirely new dish 
— to wit, fried frogs' legs. He had devised a beautiful 
method of taking the musical batrachians. He baited a 
very fine fish-hook with a bit of red flannel and affixed it 
to an eighty-foot trout-line. Then joining a fourteen foot 



198 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

rod he walked along the shady shore, and cast his line. 
Should the fisher for trout sneer at suah outlandish fish- 
ing, and pot-fishing at that, he should know that to catch 
a bull-frog with hook and line requires a better eye and 
more skillful hand than are sufficient to successful trout- 
fishing. The frog never "rises" to the bait ; the latter 
must be let gently down before his eyes and nose, and 
then, as he leisurely opens his jaws, be dropped into his 
mouth. The slightest breath of wind, or tremor of arm, 
causes the bait to graze the cheek of the game, and then 
an angry foot is lifted to brush it away, and a goggle eye 
rolls back reproachfully at the disturber. When the bait is 
taken, the frog seems to realize but slowly that anything 
unusual has occurred, and the sportsman is likely to 
accuse him of lacking the proper spirit of a game fish (or 
beast, or bird, whichever he may please to call it), but 
when the truth dawns upon the frog's mind he gives a leap, 
to view which would drive a kangaroo into mortifica- 
tion and suicide, and then goes for deep water w r ith an 
alacrity which causes the reel to buzz merrily. Having 
tested the length of the line, however, his method changes 
to that of a goat, and he pulls stubbornly in a single di- 
rection while the sportsman reels him in. The Commo- 
dore illustrated this operation but once however, for after 
landing his first frog he was unable to find another to try 
his wiles upon. A few moments before, the creatures 
sat numerously along the water's edge, blankly blinking, 
and as reserved and unsympathetic as a body of office- 



LIBERTE, EGALiTE, FRATERNITE. I99 

holders at a civil service reform meeting ; the spectacle 
of the suspension of one of their own number, however, 
was one which they were quick to see and take warning by. 

Later in the evening the quartette received a call from 
a fine looking old farmer and his wife, both arriving in one 
of those peculiarly rotten old skiffs which, when one sees 
them in use, seem strong arguments in favor of a special 
Providence interposing to protect human life. The lady 
was curious to see the culinary outfit of the party, while 
her husband led conversation slowly but surely toward 
the subject of the late war in the States. When he 
learned that some of the party had seen military service, 
he manifested great satisfaction, and told of his own ex- 
periences, which the military and political exigencies of 
France had caused to be of varied but stirring nature. 
The Vice listened with a sympathy born of his recollec- 
tions of the blockade-running service, but when he learned 
that the old fellow, when a soldier, had once fraternized 
with the revolutionists and fought beside them behind a 
barricade, he shouted, " Liberte, Egalite, Fraternity," 
and tumultously embraced the grizzly old warrior in true 
French fashion. 

The next morning found the expedition still in camp 
upon the island, and not caring to depart. Scenery so 
diversified it had not been the fortune of any of the party 
to have seen elsewhere. Every hour of the day re- 
vealed some new beauty, and every change of light dis- 
covered new charms in those which had been seen before. 



200 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

The Cook, who had become so enamored of the view 
that he occasionally forgot his official duties, arose at 
dawn one morning to enjoy the scene by sunrise. The 
air was chilly, so he kindled his fire and soon had a fine 
bed of coals behind which he stretched himself, with his 
face to the east. The dawn had doffed its bluish-grey 
night-robe and was putting on a morning-dress of soft 
pink, but doing it as leisurely as if this were not an age 
of action, and as if time were not money. Then its com- 
plexion slowly but steadily brightened under the influence 
of atmosphere unpolluted by factory chimney, and undis- 
turbed by rumbling omnibus or rattling milk-wagon. It 
glanced kindly down into the farmer's barnyard, and re- 
ceived murmuring acknowledgments from the cattle and 
fowls ; it peered between the young trees on the steep 
bank of the opposite shore, and each of them seemed to 
stand a little straighter than before, while each leaf 
gazed down into the watery mirror beneath and made its 
most elaborate toilet. The river saw it coming, and, 
ashamed of its own leaden complexion, hastened to throw 
over its face a misty veil which should prevent too close 
a gaze until the river's only valet should arise from his 
couch behind the dawn, and brighten the heavy coun- 
tenance. The birds greeted cheerily the acquaintance 
who came every day, and whose only fault was that it 
never remained long enough; the tiny blossoms beneath 
the trees began to peer forth at it ; a million daisies turned 
their yellow eyes toward it, and with each new attention 



CONVERSATION OF FORCE. 201 

bestowed it blushed more and more. It sent the politest 
of zephyrs to beg the river to remove its vail ; it lavished 
its own charms upon the river until the stream seemed to 
have emerged suddenly from the fountain of youth ; the 
most subtle and delicious perfumes diffused themselves 
every where, and the Cook breathed them in with a feel- 
ing that he was absorbing Nature's own sweet self. Then 
there floated through the air an odor more pronounced 
and less fragrant, and the Cook discovered that a large 
fold of one of his baggy trouser legs had succumbed to 
the attentions of the neighboring fire, and disappeared 
like the baseless fabric of a vision and left but a rag 
behind. Just then the Purser, who at home was a phi- 
losopher as well as an artist, emerged yawning from his 
couch and proceeded to the river and his ablutions. 

" Purser," said the Cook; " you believe in the conser- 
vation of force ; tell me now, I pray you, in what potent 
form the lost fabric of my trouser leg will reappear?" 

" In a tailor's bill," replied the Purser, and the Cook, 
a wiser and a sadder man, sauntered off to fill the ex- 
peditionary coffee-pot. 

" The squadron," remarked the Commodore, as he 
drained his second pint of coffee and laid aside his emp- 
tied plate, "will now prepare itself for the reception of 
a plain but startling statement. I call upon you all to 
bear witness that I did not in the least discourage the 
little ebullition on the part of the Cook which led him to 
run the rapids at the fort through the humiliating device 



202 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

of getting his boat carried up stream, so that he could 
float down. I wish now to inform the fleet that real 
rapids are before us. (Sensation, the squadron well 
knowing that naught in the nature of rapids intervened 
between them and the St. Lawrence.) You all know, by 
report at least, that the river a few miles below is 
crossed by a railway bridge. This railway traverses a 
rough section of country and shortly touches the head- 
waters of a wild river where they break from one of the 
largest of our mountain lakes. Over this road I have 
secured transportation for the fleet, and in two days at 
the latest I hope that the " Becky Sharp " will show the 
expedition the way down the " Horse Race " at Lake 
End. The stream to which I refer falls into a navigable 
river which in its turn joins the St. Lawrence within easy 
reach of transportation to New York. I have prudently 
kept this contemplated change of plan to myself until I 
could be reasonably assured of its feasibility. The 
letters received at the fort gave me the desired informa- 
tion, and I now submit my proposition to the fleet." 

" We don't want to reach anywhere," said the Purser. 
" Wherever we are is paradise." 

" No, we don't want to reach any where," said the 
Vice. " We must in some way distinguish ourselves 
from the tramps to whom we outwardly bear so faithful 
a resemblance. I'm in no hurry ; my canvass for the fall 
elections don't begin for a month. Besides, on expedi- 
tions like this I believe, with the Alderman — " 



MAKING ANOTHER START. 203 

" Wherever we are may be paradise,'' remarked the 
Cook, "but I never heard of manna being found except 
in the wilderness, and in my official capacity I would 
state that the manna of this expedition is reduced to one 
pair of frogs'-legs, and that these, having been gathered 
on the Sabbath, are, in short, spoiled." 

Immediately every man began to stow his boat, and 
in a short time the expedition was paddling over the line 
of the Cook's Sabbath-day journey. At the first village 
touched by the squadron the Purser, who went ashore for 
stores, discovered that in spite of the distance from great 
centres of thought, the rights of woman had gained full 
recognition. The store was managed by a woman, who 
left a loom to wait upon the customer, while her husband 
smoked calmly in his chair and exhibited no sign of dis- 
approval. 

Nor were there lacking sufficient indications of the 
universal brotherhood of man. The village was as desti- 
tute of shade-trees as if it had been for years under the 
charge of a New Jersey road-board, and all forest trees 
had been as carefully removed from the broad expanse of 
farming land as if they had been noxious weeds. A 
stone pier which extended a little way into the river had 
cracked and settled as thoroughly as it could have done 
under the fostering care of a dock commission, and some 
people living in a house close to a large stagnant pool 
bewailed, as a direct visitation of Providence, the serious 
illness of a member of their family. 



204 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

At this point the expedition admitted the advisability 
of obtaining from mid-stream all water for drinking and 
culinary purposes. They saw numerous small floats, ex- 
tending fifty or more feet into the river, and at the end 
of each of these, (the day being Monday) bent a woman 
over a washtub, while at the landward end of the float a 
fire of driftwood burned under a kettle, and sturdy 
daughters of the family were engaged in tending the fire, 
wringing the clothes and hanging them on the bushes to 
dry. The beautiful simplicity of all these arrangements 
so impressed the Vice, that no sooner had the expedition 
camped on a verdant point than he remarked that he did 
not see why men should not wash as well as women, and 
extracting some articles of apparel from their hiding 
place, he shortly presented the appearance depicted on 
the following page, and now and then expressed his sur- 
prise that the fleet was not as much interested in watching 
his proceedings as it had been in those of the Canadian 
blanchisseuses along the water side. 

It had needed but the stimulus of action to make the 
squadron forget its lotus-life at the island where it seemed 
always afternoon, and around the evening fire a health- 
ful reaction set in favor of rapids and the contemplated 
change of programme. 



XII. 

A CHANGE OF SCENE. 

AFTER breakfast the Commodore announced that 
as nearly as he could estimate the town of St. 
Ursus was only about one hour's run from the camp, and 
that thence the squadron was to be shipped across coun- 
try, to Lake End, a freight train being due about the mid- 
dle of the morning, and a passenger train following shortly 
afternoon. With light hearts the squadron paddled down 
a lovely stretch of river, past one or two " swell " houses 
at which the Vice looked askance, as the probable abodes 
of an " effete aristocracy." Two ladies, however, were 
encountered out rowing in a boat, and as they gave pleas- 
ant greeting to the Vice who happened to pass nearest 
them, his opinions underwent a marked change, and he 
expressed himself as not averse to associating with peer- 
esses in their own right, as he declared these undoubtedly 
were. 

In due time the bridge was reached ; the little station 
at one end thereof was enlivened for a time by the pres- 
ence of four canoes and their owners, the station-master 
showed a Montreal paper only a few hours old, the 
freight train thundered up and away bearing the most 



DOWN THE RACE. 20J 

important part of the command, and after two or three 
hours of dining and loafing about, the four inferior beings 
followed in a passenger car. Thence an hour later they 
emerged and stood upon the platform at Lake End, gaz- 
ing southward through a rugged mountain gateway which 
closed in steeply on the dark blue waters. 

It was but a few minutes work to secure the services 
of a wagoner, who, for fifty cents, transported the four 
canoes one by one to the water's edge and deposited 
them ready for launching. By mid-afternoon the Purser 
and Cook had bought a few necessary supplies and the 
Commodore and Vice had reconnoitered the dam and 
scanned the rapids below, down which it was intended to 
run before sunset. 

Very quickly the news spread through the little town 
that four Yankees were going down the Race, and by the 
time all was ready for passing the boats over a practicable 
part of the dam, the whole population, male and female, 
including summer boarders in the bewildering toilettes 
of the period, were ranged along the banks, with the 
exception of those who came to lend a hand, and a squad 
headed by the local hotel-keeper, who strove to dissuade 
the party from what he represented as a rash venture. 
The hotel-keeper in fact was very kind, offering to pro- 
vide good rooms over night and send the boats round the 
Race in a wagon in the morning. But the white water 
was all the while roaring its invitation and drowning his 
arguments, and though a witness was finally brought 



208 



CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 



who, having only one leg, declared that he had " run " 
the rapids, and that the squadron couldn't do it, the 
temptation was too strong to be resisted, so one after 
another, with safe intervals between, the cruisers paddled 
out into the flashing water, and then for a few minutes, 
with every sense on the alert, every nerve strained, no 




In the Second Rapids. 

one had an eye for anything save sunken rocks, treach- 
erous swirls of the current, and the hundred indications 
which to the canoeist indicate the deepest wafer and 
the safest channel. It seemed only a few seconds, but 
the better part of a mile had been passed when the 
four waited for one another in the first reach of quiet 
water that afforded us a resting place. Each had grazed a 
few rocks in the first rapid, but all had passed triumph- 
antly and without visible mishap beyond the ken of the 



IN FOR IT. 209 

the hotel keeper, and the villagers, and were content. 
Half the Race, however, was yet to be run, and there 
was barely enough of daylight left for the undertaking. 

" The stream runs fast, 
The rapids are near, and the daylight past," 

sang the Purser as he paddled the Arethusela out into 
the stream to show the channel, the flagship following, 
the Cherub next, and the Rochefort bringing up the 
rear — an order of sequence that was presently effectually 
reversed. Just below the head of the next rapid the 
Arethusela hung upon a rock, and in an instant her 
commander was overboard and struggling in a fierce 
waist-deep current to keep his footing, and retain a hold 
upon his boat. To add to his discomfiture his paddle 
had come apart and half of it was floating merrily down 
the stream. As the Commodore swept past, the discom- 
fited Purser called on him to save it ; and two or three 
strokes brought him nearly within reach, but at the same 
time deflected him from the only path of safety. The 
next minute he, too, was in the water, which, before 
testing, he supposed to be knee-deep, but which proved 
to be nearer neck-deep, while the fugitive paddle, with a 
playful flourish of its blade, dived under a log, disappeared 
for a moment from view, and then danced cheerfully down 
the swift waters beyond. At this crisis the Cherub and 
Rochefort appeared, and flashed past as, half swimming, 
half wadinsr, the two strove to reach a secure footing- . 
They shouted derisive inquiries for orders to the 



210 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

Commodore, and presently disappeared around the bend 
below. 

Speaking unofficially and strictly in a private capacity, 
the Commodore admits that he had all he could do to 
avoid grievous wreck on the logs beneath which his com- 



A 






■Xf 






yS^ 






1 


A' 


1 




Down the Race. 

panion's elusive paddle had vanished. Wading and 
swimming were alike irreconcilable with the conditions, 
for the bed of the river was full q( boulders over which 
the water boiled without breaking. He tried the plan 
of holding on to his boat and floating ; but after being 
dragged and bumped for a few yards over the stones, he 
gave- that up and resigned himself to careful wading until 
he reached the shallows, where he at length succeeded in 
re-embarking — no easy task, by the way, in swift wat.er — - 
and soon joined the Cherub and Rochefort. 

A camping spot was selected on a bank of sawdust 
near which was a mighty pile of dry mill waste, and the 
three proceeded to light a fire and make a somewhat 
needful change of clothing, before getting supper and 
turning in for the night. After a long time the Arethu- 



SAFE IN THE CAMP. 211 

sela came in sight, her crew laboriously working a half- 
paddle — though why a spare one stowed below decks was 
not used was never found out — and examining the shores 
and channel for the lost property. This was happily dis- 
covered close to camp, and presently a " lean-to." was 
covered with the soaked tent, which made a reasonably 
comfortable shelter. 

Sawdust is not so bad to sleep on when you have a 
boat or a rubber-blanket under you, but it retains moist- 
ure badly, and is seldom dry more than an inch below 
the surface. Moreover, the dry part catches fire and 
burns in an exceedingly persistent and stealthy manner, 
tunneling unsuspected in all directions and making itself 
very disagreeable. The members of the expedition, how- 
ever, knew its nature and provided against its vagaries by 
wetting thoroughly in the vicinity of the fire, where the 
Cook speedily had coffee and a tempting pan of scrambled 
eggs ready for the evening meal. 

The voyagers went to sleep this night with unwonted 
noises in their ears, namely the close-at-hand roar of 
rapids rising and falling as the mysterious and impercep- 
tible changes of the evening air bore it, now heavily, now 
faintly, through the thick forest of spruce. It was a wilder 
region than that through which they had been passing on 
the lake and its outlet, and the woods gave out sounds 
at night which often aroused one and another with the 
pleasing and yet uncomfortable thought of bears and 
lynxes in his half awakened brain. 



XIII. 

SWIFT WATER. 

HERE, at the foot of " Rapid No. 2," the authors 
would say a word for the benefit of the inexperi- 
enced. They are asked by cautious readers if this kind of 
play is not dangerous. Certainly, just as coasting, and 
travelling by rail, and crossing Broadway, and playing base 
and foot-ball, are dangerous. In short, just exactly as life 
itself is dangerous. They would not advise any but bold 
swimmers to undertake the amusement ; but where proper 
survey is taken to avoid possible falls, a wetting is the worst 
that can ordinarily happen. During the entire trip no mis- 
haps occurred save those which came in as part of the fun, 
and although the voyagers were wet and dry half a dozen 
times a day, not one caught the slightest cold, or suffered 
any ill effects from exposure. Hardly any woman, and not 
by any means all men, can be expected to appreciate the 
fun of these duckings and other uncertainties of canoe 
cruising. It may as well be admitted, however, that no 
out-of-door recreation that is worthy the name, is wholly 
without risk. The steadiest horses sometimes take fright 
and run away. Without its rivalries and possible perils 
to heart and hand, croquet itself would be but an insipid 



BY THE INDIAN FILE. 213 

pastime. All excitement presupposes risk of some kind, 
but it refreshes body and brain alike when taken in rea- 
sonable doses and in a fashion that does not infringe on 
the rights of others. Since the Saturday afternoons of 
their boyhood the authors have experienced nothing so 
delightful as those long days on lake and river. 

To certain members of the fleet the awakening in the 
chilly morning air, with fog rising from the water and 
drifting through the slender spires of balsam and spruce, 
was the reverse of inspiriting, and the uncertainty as to 
the course of the river below did not tend to create an 
irresistible eagerness for farther rapids and farther 
wettings. The sun however, soon drove away the mist, 
dried the heavy dew from boats and equipments, and 
gradually, as the river dimpled in the sunlight and rushed 
brimming past in a swift deep current, it resumed its 
attractiveness and, as soon as clothing was dry enough to 
put on, every man was eager to begin the day's adven- 
tures, and get it comfortably wet again. 

Single file should be the order of procedure in a rapid 
river where there is any question as to the width of unob- 
structed channel. On sighting a rapid whose foot cannot 
be clearly seen from its head, some one should recon- 
noitre, and after noting the bearings of the current, should 
lead the way, the rest of the fleet following at safe inter- 
vals and taking prompt warning from his example in case 
he comes to grief. As a general rule the water is deepest 
near the concave shore. The reason is obvious. Each 



214 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

general shore-line of a crooked stream is a series of points 
and bays modified by a hundred varying conditions. 
Every point tends to deflect the current toward the op- 
posite shore, and where the strongest current is, there is 
ordinarily the deepest water. Where the stream breaks 
into rapids the same rule holds good, but is liable to end- 
less modifications from boulders and rocks of all shapes 
and sizes. Nevertheless it may be assumed that it has 
been trying for untold ages to shape its channel according 
to nature's rule, and it will be found in most cases to 
have attained a reasonable success. At the head of a 
rapid the white broken water is almost invariably V 
shaped, the apex pointing down stream. Between the 
arms of the V the water is comparatively smooth, and 
dark. Along the arms and below the apex is white 
w r ater, thrown up more or less into waves. It is generally 
the safest course, barring casual rocks which may put in 
an appearance anywhere, to head directly for the apex 
of the V, keeping in unbroken water as long as possible. 
Then trust to luck and a quick eye and hand to avoid 
the rocks which come too near the surface. Nothing but 
experience can teach one to recognize these, and even 
recognition does not always imply the ability to avoid 
disaster. 

If a keel-boat hangs resolutely on an obstacle, there 
is nothing for its occupant to do but to jump overboard, 
and the quicker the better, if he wishes to keep his stores 
dry. In many cases such a boat may swing free or be 



THE UNPICTURESQUE MODE. 21 5 

lifted clear by a powerful thrust of the paddle. The 
canoeist's instinct is all that he has to tell him whether to 
jump or thrust. With a keelless canoe the case is differ- 
ent as it is comparatively rare that such an one will hang 
persistently to an obstacle. It is often best however, to 
take to the water in order to save the canoe from hard 
knocks and scrapes. In view of this necessity for jumping 
overboard, some protection is necessary for the feet, and 
there is nothing so good as the common canvas bathing- 
shoes with thick soles of hemp or jute. An old pair of 
slippers is, however, far better than nothing. 

Upon the whole, the best policy is to sit as usual 
amidships and give to rocks the widest berth possible. 
There is a pernicious doctrine in some quarters, derived 
it must be confessed from English canoeists, that in run- 
ning rapids it is well to sit astride the canoe near the 
stern, and lift her clear if she strikes by simply standing 
up on the bottom of the stream, if it can be reached with 
the feet. The Purser tried this once, purely out of pa- 
triotism, but did not make a very good demonstration of 
its advantages, for he upset as soon as he ran out of shoal 
water, or rather he took a ducking in order to save his 
stores which would inevitably have been wet had he tried 
for an instant longer to maintain his precarious seat. 
The rivers of Europe may admit of this very unpic- 
turesque mode of running a rapid, but those of America 
do not take to it kindly. 

The keels of the Chrysalids, are a decided disadvan- 



2l6 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

tage in this phase of canoeing. They give the canoe ad- 
ditional draught, and hang with provoking tenacity upon 
any rock or other obstacle which they encounter. The 
Red-Lakers on the contrary slide with an inch or more 
to spare over an obstacle which would bring a Chrysalid 
to instant grief. They turn far more easily, and hence 
can much more readily be made by a quick swerve to one 
side or the other, to avoid a threatened danger. The 
blindest worshipper of the Chrysalid model can claim 
nothing for a keel in swift water, save that it receives the 
hard knocks which would otherwise have scarified the 
more fragile bottom planks. This argument in their favor 
is not good for much, as the keel cannot protect more 
than two or three inches on each side, unless the obstacle 
happens to be broad and flat. Under these conditions, 
it was to be expected that the Rochefort would select 
with excellent judgment a place whereon to demonstrate 
the advantages of her keel. It may have been at the 
foot of Rapid No. 9, at any rate it was at the head of a 
comparatively quiet reach of water where three of the 
fleet had drawn out of the current with a view to lunch- 
eon. The Vice was the last to arrive, and was sweeping 
boldly down where the current was swift and deep, h'av- 
ing passed the white water, when suddenly he was ob- 
served to bring up all standing, his boat swinging round 
instantly across the current, having fixed a malicious grip 
upon a hidden rock, over which the water boiled, but did 
not break. The Vice was unceremoniously plumped out 



ON THE ROCKS TO DRY. 217 

on the down-stream side into water that was neck deep 
and running like a mill-race, but as he wore a life-belt he 
feels justified in maintaining that he did not go entirely 
under. He succeeded in getting a hold upon the rock 
by the aid of his boat hook, and seated himself thereon, 
holding his boat by the painter as she floated, full of water 
and only sustained by her air-tight compartments, a yard 
or two below him. The picture that he presented at 
this moment was comical in the extreme, and he was 
heartlessly kept sitting there, — he could not very well get 
off alone with his boat to manage, — while the Commodore 
made a sketch. The regular artist was too much con- 
cerned at his friend's critical situation to pay any attention 
to the calls made upon him for a careful study. The cur- 
rent was so swift and deep that efforts to reach the Vice 
by swimming were unsuccessful, so it became necessary 
to wade out a few rods below him and catch his boat, 
when he let her float down. He easily swam ashore 
when relieved of this charge, and once more the Roche- 
fort had to be emptied of everything, and all lay by for 
two or three hours, while her owner and his belongings 
were spread out on the rocks to dry, he discoursing, the 
while, until all fell asleep, of the innate viciousness of a 
boat which could thus deliberately bring her commander 
to confusion and shame. 

It was in " Number 12 " that all came nearest to utter 
discomfiture, that is to actual overturns, and consequent 
wettings of things not intended to be wet. Never had 



THE RAPID ESCAPE. 219 

the Vice, whose turn it was to survey the route, seen 
a more innocent-locking rapid. It swept down in a 
slight curve, dancing in the sun and seemingly offering a 
clear channel. It was the flagship's turn to bring up the 
rear, and in watching the descent of the others the Com- 
modore perceived that at a certain point each crew of one 
became as it were demoralized, and struggled mightily 
with the current until each turned at a right angle and 
went on its way into the pool below. The reason was 
not apparent until he reached the same point, when he 
suddenly became aware that the stream-was bearing him 
with great velocity directly upon a huge rock. To go to 
starboard was certain wreck. The only safety lay in turn- 
ing sharply to port, as his predecessors had done. To all 
appearance this was utterly impossible, and, while strain- 
ing every nerve to make good his escape, the flag-officer 
fully expected to be rolled over into twelve feet of water 
in the most undignified manner, and in full view of the 
fleet. Just at the last moment, when an overturn seemed 
inevitable, an unexpected set-back from the rock caught 
the canoe and whirled her instantly over a delightful little 
dip, hardly high enough to be termed a fall, into the deep 
water below, where the rest of the fleet lay enjoying the 
perplexity and relief through which each in his turn had 
passed. It is quite impossible under such circumstances 
to shout advice, for the roar of the water completely over- 
powers the voice. What would have happened if any or 
all had struck the rock? Why, each and all would have 



220 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

been spilled comfortably into deep water, to be sure, 
whence it would have been easy to swim ashore and put 
things to rights. 

After a day of exciting work of this kind it was not 
unpleasant in the afternoon to paddle out upon the 
smooth waters of a little lake in the midst of the forest. 
Along its gentle swelling shores were scattered farm 
houses, beyond which the rough clearings crept up the 
hillsides. Two or three huge water-oaks bent oyer the 
shore in a shady cove, and here the squadron took shelter- 
until the sun's rays should be less vertical. Presently 
from a neighboring farm house there came down to the 
water's edge a damsel who proceeded' artlessly to rivet 
upon herself the attention of the fleet by lighting a fire 
under a boiler, and doing up the family washing at the 
lake-side. The artist filled a page or two of his sketch- 
book with studies from the life, but refuses for some rea- 
son to furnish them for publication. She was near 
enough, however, to afford a fine opportunity, as the 
Artist said, to study the peculiar French type of form and 
feature, as modified by several generations of life in a 
foreign climate. 

Presently the Commodore, under pretence of inquir- 
ing after eggs and milk, approached la blanchisscuse. The 
Cook lounged respectfully behind his commanding officer, 
while the latter addressed the woman in alleged French 
to receive only a dismal shake of the head in reply. He 
repeated his question, changing the phraseology, but with 



IMPRESSIVE ADVICE. 221 

a different result, while the Cook, to relieve the Com- 
modore's evident embarrassment, softly whistled the 
Thuringian " Volks-lied." A pleased glance from the 
woman elicited a word or two from the Cook ; after a 
short but spirited conversation in which the Commodore 
took no part, the Cook informed his companion that the 
desired supplies could be had at the house, and the two 
men departed. 

" Confound this French lingo ! " exclaimed the Com- 
modore, " there are as many dialects in this region as 
there are towns, and I don't easily pick them up; how do 
you manage to do it ? " 

" My dear fellow," said the Cook impressively, " there 
is one rule to be unvaryingly observed in conversing with 
these people : never speak French to a woman who under- 
stands only the German language." 

The Commodore dropped the milk-pail — fortunately 
it was empty — and endeavored to swear the Cook to 
secrecy, with what success this narrative doth show. But 
he derived some consolation from frequent allusions to 
the Purser's professional studies of the " French type of 
form and feature, as modified by a change of abode." 

When the sun was low enough to cast the shadow of 
the hills upon the lake, the fleet started and made its 
way toward a distant point which, it was surmised, was 
not far from the outlet and would afford good camping 
ground for the night. A more delightful three mile pad- 
dle can hardly be imagined. The peculiarly sacred still- 



222 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

ness of a forest-land at sunset was over all the scene ; a 
silence that seemed absolute, and was yet vocal with 
noises that did not break the spell. The plash of leaping 
fish, the far off scream of an eagle, the occasional laughter 
of a loon, the measured dip of paddles, none of these were 
discordant with nature, and even the human tones that 
now and then floated from the distant houses were so 
faint as to be inoffensive. The voyagers hardly ex- 
changed a word as side by side they slid through the 
reflected hues of sunset, watching in silence the mighty- 
mountain that rose in dark purple against the west, and 
gathered around its summit a night-cap of cloud that 
changed from red to grey just as the point was reached 
and the tent pitched beneath a huge gnarled pine, that 
towered above its fellows, and offered, as the Vice sug- 
gested, an admirable mark for any nocturnal thunder- 
storm that mi^ht be wandering in this direction. Onlv 
one thing aroused any apprehensions as to the comfort 
of this camp, and that was the ceaseless roar (the word 
is used advisedly in preference to "hum") of insects. 
They proved innocuous, however, and sleep soon came 
down upon the tired canoeists. 



XIV. 

MORE RAPIDS. 

CONTRARY to custom the camp had been pitched 
where the morning sun would strike in upon it. 
This is undesirable unless an early start is the order of 
.the day, for breakfast in the level rays of a summer sun 
is not so comfortable as in the shade of a natural screen. 
At a tolerably seasonable hour, therefore, the squadron 
paddled around the point and across the reach which still 
separated them by two miles or so from the outlet. For 
variety the wind was dead ahead, but the distance was 
soon passed and the flash of rapids at the very lip of the 
lake announced that the stream maintained the char- 
acter which it had displayed in the earlier portion of its 
career. In a moment the four pretty canoes were in 
line at ample distance apart and were dancing down the 
swift current into a dark sweep of spruce-covered banks, 
with four as light hearted vagabonds on board as ever 
left care behind them. 

In retrospect it is hardly possible to recall any part 
of this romantic river where a halt was not a luxury 
merely because of the picturesque surroundings. Seldom 
could the eye reach more than half a mile up or down 



224 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

stream, for the precipitous or forest-covered banks were 
continually pushing out on the one side and receding on 
the other, while between them the river curved and 
wound in a perpetual succession of rapids, pools, and 
quiet stretches. The current even in its most quiet moods 
was singularly swift and powerful, bearing the fleet on- 
ward with hardly an effort, at the rate of six or seven 
miles an hour. When clearings occurred they were 
on the points, as is always the case in thinly settled coun- 
tries. Naturally such points are formed in there-entrant 
angle of the stream, and become places of deposit for 
drift and alluvium in flood time. The opposite bank 
is usually bold and with soil enough in most cases to 
sustain only the wild forest growth. The quiet reaches, 
however, are frequently broken where the river forces 
its way through narrow passages, or over rocky ledges. 
There are no dangerous falls until within a mile of the 
mouth, and there is only one dam between the lake and 
the falls. This dam the voyagers reached a few hours 
after leaving the lake ; hours full of the pleasant, health- 
ful excitement of rapids and wild shifting scenery. 

Striking the back-water of the mill-pond a mile above 
the dam, the fleet paddled down and soon came in sight 
of the logs and crib-work which indicate the presence of 
a saw- mill. 

Drawing up alongside the boom, all hands walked 
across the dam and considered the chances of running; 
the race-way. Noon had passed however, and while the 



A STANDARD PINT. 22 5 

question was still unsettled, children came down from the 
mill-settlement with fresh raspberries, and butter made in 
the French style, without salt, and thus reminded of 
luncheon, it was decided, in view of an approaching 
thunder shower, to adjourn to the shelter of the mill 
Here an incident occurred which proved as it had never 
been proved before the admirable discipline maintained 
in the personnel of the command. 

In the early days of the cruise it became painfully 
evident to the real canoeists who were connected with 
the expedition, that in one particular at least an unseemly 
tendency toward effeminate luxury was developing itself. 
The Vice and the Purser, on the first day out, produced 
with an air of insufferable superiority, china plates, and 
bowls which they were pleased to denominate coffee cups. 
The relative size of these as compared with the legitimate 
tin-cups used by the Commodore and the Cook is here- 
with shown. Of course the flag-officer at once detected 
the ruse, and foiled the conspirators by issuing at the 
first camp, Special Order No. I to this effect: 

The coffee ration will always be measured in the Cook's cup, that being 
the standard pint recognized at these headquarters. 

By order of the Commodore. 

Possible infringement on the rights of individuals 
having thus been provided against, it was only necessary 
to counteract so far as possible the demoralizing effect of 
the daily sight of china upon the morale of the expedition. 
This end was diligently sought by the commanding officer 



226 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

by every means in his power, but to no purpose. He 
personally supervised the daily measuring of coffee with 
the Cook's cup, but by some means the china bowls were 
always filled, and their owners never failed to remark upon 
the superior excellence of coffee taken from such re- 
ceptacles over that imbibed from barbaric tin. It was 




Comparative Coffee Cups.- 

evident that sooner or later a resort must be had to arbi- 
trary measures, but no fitting opportunity presented itself 
until the squadron took refuge in the mill as narrated 
above. 

The thunder storm proved to be of extraordinary 
violence, throwing down trees, overturning buildings and 
playing the mischief generally. 

Midway of the meal the wind so increased as to drive 
the rain in upon the festive board. The Commodore 
saw that the time had come for action, and acted with 
the promptitude which should always characterize an able 
commander. " Prepare for a change of base," he shouted 
above the roar of rain and wind. " Purser, coffee-pot 
and sugar ; Vice, devilled turkey and salt ; Cook, bread and 
butter." Each man seized the articles indicated and fled 



A SACRIFICE FOR CHINA. 227 

to a place of shelter. With a gleam of triumph in his eye 
the Commodore collected the remaining dishes, and taking 
his life in his hand, for the good of the service, sprang 
upon a pile of logs that was awaiting the saw, and at- 
tempted to cross it at a run. At the third step a log 
tilted. The Commodore went down, while the spasmodic 
upward motion of the arms, under such circumstances, 
sent the dishes aloft. They speedily came down, but it 
was in pieces that did the Cook's heart good to see. The 
Commodore, it is true, might have broken his leg, but he 
did not, and while he somewhat ruefully rubbed his star- 
board shin, he watched with scarce concealed satisfaction 
the gathering of the fragments. Not a bowl or a plate 
remained. The morale of the expedition was saved ! 

After the storm passed, it became necessary to cir- 
cumvent or run the dam. It was a logging dam, some 
eighteen feet in perpendicular height, and offered extra- 
ordinary inducements for running, but with a little too 
much risk, so the boats were laboriously passed one by 
one over the wing of the dam, and found themselves at 
the head of a superb rapid which swept beneath and 
around a rocky cape, and quickly carried the fleet beyond 
the ken of the little forest settlement lying around the mill. 
. If possible the scenery below the mill was more pic- 
turesque than any previously seen. At one point the 
woods were on fire, and for a few hundred yards the 
smoke was so thick that progress had to be made with 
extreme caution, as the current was swift and the channel 



228 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

full of rocks. At another the stream wound slowly 
between wood-crowned cliffs, whose geological nature 
severely taxed the scientific attainments of the expedi- 
tion, and tempted a long sojourn, while the Artist vainly 
essayed a realistic sketch of the strangely convoluted 
strata, which made the face of the cliff so wonderfully 
expressive of the elemental strife and torture that must 
have shaped it in some by-gone age. So with alternat- 
ing reaches of swift and still water, the lovely stream 
coursed downward, bearing the fleet only too rapidly 
toward its junction with the larger river. One more 
night was passed among the spruces of its rugged shores, 
and shortly after the next morning's start it became 
evident that the forest stream was preparing to fulfill its 
destiny in driving the saws of a great mill. Houses 
straggled along the bank, and presently the fleet was 
feeling its way among logs and booms to a landing place. 
A few hours sufficed to procure transportation around 
the beautiful falls, and by sundown the squadron was 
making camp as usual on the banks of a broad placid 
river, which to all appearances was the same which it left 
a few days before. Here was Acadia again, and*some- 
thing of a mental effort was necessary to realize that 
it was another Acadia from that wherein the first aeon of 
the cruise had passed. The vesper bell sounded as 
before, the lumber laden barges drifted as lazily as ever, 
and the villages named after unheard of saints dotted 
the banks in close succession, and the roar of rapids was 
no loneer to be heard. 



XV. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 

IT had been something of a relief to stow masts and 
sails compactly away for a few days, and now again it 
was an agreeable change to be once more under canvas 
and see the slender masts bend and spring before the 
breeze. 

In the course of a day's sail the river narrowed per- 
ceptibly, as rivers are wont to do as they near their out- 
lets, and the various members of the expedition, having 
noted the fact, proceeded, each in his own way, to dis- 
cover the cause thereof. A melancholy howl (learned 
from Garibaldians in Italy) by the Vice, who was always 
in the rear, was rightly construed by the occupants of the 
Red Lakers (in the advance) as a sign that the Vice 
wanted to light his pipe, so the Cook, who by virtue of 
his official position was custodian of the expeditionary 
matches, lay to until the Vice came alongside. 

" The river," remarked the Vice, between puffs, " is 
narrowing — every mile. Suppose it — should keep on — 
doing it for — fifty miles more ; it — would close entirely 
before — it reached the — ow ! — (here the flame of the 
match reached the Vice's fingers) — reached St. — the devil, 



230 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

oh ! " for the Vice had dropped the still blazing fragment 
upon his bare foot. 

" No such saint in any calendar but that of politics," 
said the Cook reprovingly. 

" The St. Lawrence, I meant, of course," said the 
Vice : " the devil isn't recognized by any party at all." 

" I suppose not," answered the Cook, who had 
dropped into a dreamy reverie. " The true workers in 
this world are never recognized by those who are most 
entirely dependent upon them." 

" You're begging the question," exclaimed the Vice, 
examining his scorched instep. " An apology in the 
shape of your flask of olive oil will be satisfactory. 
How do you explain the river's shrinking, any how? " 

" Why, it's growing deeper, and as there's only a given 
amount of water, it can't occupy more space in one 
direction without narrowing in another. It's a precedent 
you might safely follow in politics." 

The Vice reflected for a moment ; then a sweet smile 
irradiated his features, his left eye closed, his right fore- 
finger was slowly laid athwart his nose, and he replied, 

" I knew that long ago, my boy ; it's the mainstay of 
the business — the system, I mean. Let the party broaden, 
and ' Othello's occupation's gone.' " 

But the Cook, having relieved his mind of chaff which 
nevertheless carried (unknown to him) a grain of wheat, 
determined to inflict upon some one else the questioning 
to which he had been subjected, so he speedily overhauled 



A QUESTION SETTLED. 23 1 

the other Chrysalid containing the Purser, and demanded 
the reason of the river's narrowing. The Purser abruptly 
ceased patching a sonnet which he had scribbled upon 
the blade of a spare paddle, and answered, 

" The water-drops, so long united, have a premoni- 
tion of the doom of separation soon to befall them, and 
they cling more closely to each other, for a last fond in- 
terchange of sentiment." 

" Water is not compressible by its own volition," 
promptly replied the Cook, who loved cyclopedias, and 
never knew sentiment when he encountered it. But the 
Purser, who hated questions so intensely that, had he 
lived in the time of that vigorous old interrogation point 
yclept Socrates, would have tramped a thousand miles 
for hemlock rather than have left the sage unpoisoned, 
ran ashore to avenge himself upon the Commodore, who 
had beached his boat to await the coming up of his lag- 
ging fleet. To the commanding officer the Purser put 
the disturbing question as to the cause of the narrowing 
of the river, and with the following result : 

" Rivers shrink toward their natural channel for the 
same reason that capitalists take to government bonds — 
because their banks are slippery, and suffer by the many 
rushes upon them." 

The villages grew nearer together as rapidly as the 
shores did, and ahead and aloft there were always in sight 
several church spires of the unvarying pattern peculiar to 
churches along the river. Every spire was metal-covered 



232 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

and bright, the latter perhaps because there were no op- 
position houses of worship to cause that dismalness of 
aspect affected by all churches in neighborhoods where 
religion tends more to squabbling than to sanctity. At 
short intervals appeared the residences of the priests, 
each indicated by a tall cross at the gateway. The Com- 
modore, with his peculiar regard for the church so near a 
sister to his own, signified a half-intention to go ashore 
to confession, but on being reminded that but a week re- 
mained for the cruise, and that no such short time would 
suffice an editor in which to unburden his soul of its 
manifold sins and transgressions, he forbore to make 
others suffer for his own faults. It was noticed there- 
after, however, that he doffed his helmet respectfully 
whenever he sailed past a church, and that when his own 
day for foraging came, he preferred always to purchase 
milk from a priest's housekeeper. 

About this time the Purser began to drop behind in a 
manner inexplicable even by the known slowness of his 
boat; even the slow-sailing Vice distanced him, so the 
Cook, not without a special appreciation of the Purser's 
tobacco, went ashore to wait for his comrade to come up. 
The bank of the river was high, and the Cook, who had 
been hugging the shore for shade, had made company for 
himself by roaring sundry staves, supposing that no one 
but his comrades were within listening distance. Great 
was his surprise, therefore, when on clambering up the 
bank he beheld a closely built village in front of him. 



THE SWEET SOLUTION. 233 

Had the locality been any but Acadia, even the river 
banks could not have hidden the town, but here the 
dwellings are as modest of mien as the natives. Few 
boast of a second story, nor is the floor of the first very 
much raised above the level of the ground. In exterior 
dimensions, most of the houses reminded the Cook of his 
chicken-house at home, or of those suburban villas which 
cluster so thickly upon the hills adjoining Central Park. 
But with size the last-named parallel ceased, for the ex- 
teriors were painted, the floors, seen through the open 
doors and windows, were clean, and no pig disported 
himself about the door-step. Children clustered about 
them as thickly as they always do about very small 
houses, but the matrons lacked that fagged, heaven-hun- 
gry mien peculiar to their sisters in climes where the 
Scripture is fulfilled by the greatest being the servant of 
all — all of her own servants. Here one might speak of 
love in a cottage and not be laughed out of society — 
hopeless, indeed, would be his fate were he to desire any 
other sort of asylum for his affections. 

The Cook longed for social intercourse in this real 
Acadia, but he doubted the ability of his French to see 
him through ; fortunately he espied a shop, and therein 
he purchased sundry sticks of candy ; with one of these 
gravitating between his fingers and lips, he strolled about, 
and within five minutes he had enchained in sweet bonds 
several lapsful of dark-eyed children whose pure intui- 
tions taught them that in the great human search for 



234 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

sweetness and light it was never well to decline a prof- 
fered half of the desirable whole. 

When the Purser drew near, it was with a sketch-book 
loaded with drawings of odd boats which had been passed 
at their moorings ; and the names of these, with those of 
their owners, which were painted in antique letters astern, 
would have been of inestimable value to any writer of a 
French romance. And he brought something dearer yet 
to the eyes and heart of the Cook, and yet not wholly 
unpicturesque, it being a pair of cockerels, handsomely 
spangled, which he had purchased of a thrifty dame with 
whom he had exchanged some courteous words as he 
lounged past her riparian laundry in his boat. The Cook 
hastily took to his boat, distanced the Commodore and 
Vice, and an hour later announced broiled chickens for 
dinner, the gridiron having been a few feet of stout wire, 
which after use could be crumpled together into a thin 
handful of old iron, yet extended, at need, to a two- 
chicken capacity. 

After the expedition had dined, each member dis- 
covered, upon arising, that the human side is not desti- 
tute of muscles, and that a steady strain of half a day at 
rudder and paddle, can search these out in a manner as 
uncomfortable as it is thorough. The Purser, who usually 
made himself conspicuous, when ashore, by a broad red 
woolen sash, apparently a muffler such as small boys wear 
upon their necks in winter, was by far the most agile of 
the party, and his companions, as they rubbed away the 



COURTSHIP AFOOT AND ABOARD. 235 

stitches in their sides, inwardly vowed that the picturesque 
was not always ridiculously useless, particularly when 
assumed on proper occasions, instead of being treated as 
of constant utility. 

As the wind was gaining in industry, the Commodore 
permitted an overlong delay, to be improved physically, 
and while this was being enjoyed there hove in view 
a craft peculiar to French-American waters, but which 
would not be tolerated anywhere else. It was an im- 
mense barge, considerably more awkward than a canal 
boat, and moved by two great square sails, each with 
a mast to itself. The breeze which bellied the canvas of 
this monster would have driven a canoe along at the 
rate of twelve miles an hour, but the barge proceeded so 
leisurely that a maiden sauntering along the road on 
the bank chatted with the pilot for a mile or two without 
quickening her pace. Having both his vessel and his 
sweetheart upon his mind, it is not strange that the 
pilot did not perceive the four foreign craft beached 
a-starboard ; the maiden, however, with a woman's eye 
for color, caught sight of the club signal which the Cook 
always flew at his masthead, instead of upon the main- 
peak, with which it would have been furled when sail 
was taken in. Her figure, which had afforded so gracious 
a relief against the blue sky behind her, disappeared with 
the unscientific effect of seeming to leave a cloud behind, 
and as the unintentional listeners devoutly thanked 
heaven for such knowledge of the French tongue as had 



236 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

enabled them to overhear the artless affectionate dia- 
logue which had been going on, they saw, gazing at the 
pilot, how dark the Acadian complexion can be when 
displayed in the face of a lover newly made lonesome. 
Gladly would the swain himself have retired from sight, 
but the helm of his boat was obedient only under greatest 
effort, so he strained sullenly at the tiller, a figure at first 
amusing but soon pathetic. The sentiment which keeps 
the world from growing old was not a stranger to the 
canoeists, so the Purser murmured a bit from Jasmin and 
caught a hint which for years he had tried to take from 
Jules Breton ; the Cook wished there might be a joint of 
chicken left to offer the poor fellow; the Commodore 
hailed him heartily, and offered to carry him out a taste 
of brandy in token of a professional and sentimental 
sympathy, and the Vice sent him a good cigar ; and it 
came to pass that five minutes later the ere-while love- 
lorn helmsman was trolling a song of war and slaughter 
as merrily as if love and Evangeline had never existed. 

" Ah," sighed the Commodore, "the days are gone 
when rum and true religion were the principal supports 
of fallen humanity. Smoke seems to answer that fellow's 
purpose as well as religion." 

" If my memory serves me rightly," said the Vice, as if 
in profound reflection, " a great deal of the' religion I 
have heard preached, was well informed with a something 
from which smoke is a natural deduction." 

" That," said the Purser, " is because in the universal 



LITERARY ASH. 237 

fitness of things a man recalls most readily that which he 
most urgently needs. No one can wonder that a politi- 
cian — " 

" Language unparliamentary," interrupted the Vice, 
with a wry face. 

" A statesman, then," resumed the Purser, " should re- 
call most vividly the only element by which he can effect- 
ually be purified." 

" Sulphur is not to be used under the rays of the 
sun," interposed the Commodore ; " let's take to a more 
cooling element." 

A few moments were devoted to extra-careful stowing, 
for there was a likelihood that terra firma would again 
be reached only on the shores of the great St. Lawrence. 
The Vice, with the statesmanlike instinct of saving him- 
self by assisting his companions heavenward, endeavored 
by fair means and foul to persuade the others to accom- 
modate his gun, shot-bag and the volume of Tupper, but 
regarding the latter his failure was complete. At length 
he slyly tossed it into the branches of an umbrageous ash, 
a picturesque old landmark of centuries. But the Com- 
modore saw him, and went handsomely to the rescue 
of the old tree by knocking the book out with a 
boat-hook. 

" There are trees enough being destroyed daily by 
coon-hunters, road-boards, and other villains," said he, 
" and I won't stand quietly by and see so splendid a spe- 
cimen crushed beneath so relentless a weight." 



238 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

" But somebody may find the book," pleaded the 
Vice, who was already afloat. 

"Thank heaven, the natives can't read English," 
replied the Commodore, " so they won't be injured." 

" But I supposed I might find it there when I came 
this way on next summer's cruise," said the Vice. 

" So you will," said the Commodore ; " neither wind 
nor wave can move any thing so heavy : when that book 
changes its base, there'll" be nothing left to cruise with, 
and nobody left to cruise." 

The Commodore, for reasons which he would not 
explain, had ordered that the St. Lawrence should be 
reached that day, even though there was not a breath ot 
wind, and the whole trip had to be made under paddle, and 
the Cook knew full well that when a Commodore (or any- 
one else) issues an order that sounds well and prints nicely, 
its success or failure depends largely upon the digestion 
of those who are expected to execute it. So the Cook 
prepared a meal as digestible as it was bountiful, and 
within an hour the expedition had consumed enough of 
omelettes, stewed potato, rice croquettes, cream-toast and 
coffee to have terrified their respective wives into apply- 
ing for divorces on the ground of inordinate appetite.* 
It is barely possible that the meal was prolonged with 
the hope that a breeze might spring up in tt&q meantime, 

* Note by the Commodore. — The Cook's notoriously fertile imagina- 
tion has misled him slightly in regard to this menu. But let it stand. The 
Commodore, however, wishes to state that salt-pork and hard-tack formed 
the staple of the repast so far as he was personally concerned. 



THE BREEZE STIFFENS. 239 

and do away with the necessity not only of paddling, but 
of taking down and stowing away all standing rigging, 
which in still water is likely to unfavorably affect the 
time of the boat. But no breeze came, not even in reply 
to some vigorous whistling on the part of the Commodore. 
So the expedition took to its several paddles, and got 
into mid-stream to get all possible assistance from the 
current, and then, just where the river was widest, and 
the squadron furthest from shore, a brisk breeze came 
down as unexpectedly as if it were a savings bank, and 
each man had to paddle ashore again to re-step his masts 
so that he could set his sail. Then the squadron ran 
rapidly down the river, wondering only if such a breeze 
on so small a water could work a man up to so keen an 
ecstacy, how they would be able to contain themselves 
when cruising upon the almost shoreless St. Lawrence. 

As usual,* the Cook, in the Cherub, soon took the lead, 
and rapidly increased the distance between himself and 
his companions. There was nothing to fear, for the Vice, 
who had previously been through the river with the 
Alderman, had assured the party that there was not 
another rapid between it and the St. Lawrence. And 
even if there should be one which the Vice had forgotten, 
the Cook would be glad of the geographical ignorance 
which would enable him to shoot it without the attend- 
ance of three other boats, with their advisory counsels. 
So he hauled his main-sail close and flew along through 
* Note by the rest of the Squadron — " As usual— Ha ha !" 



2.40 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

the water, his steering-paddle keeping upon his wrist a 
strain more delicious than man ever felt at the larger end 
of a trout-rod. He shouted, he whistled, and finally, 
there being no critic within hearing distance, he sang. 
And as his rather uncertain voice rose and fell, the wind 
seemed to supply a deep bass, a foundation into which 
his wavering notes fitted perfectly. He fervently thanked 
the wind, and the tall trees through which it roared, for 
their sympathetic effort ; he redoubled his own vocal ex- 
ertions, and the wind and trees, apparently touched by his 
appreciation, seemed to assist more heartily than before. 
Suddenly the Cook noticed that the east bank, from which 
direction the wind came, was without trees at that point, 
and while he dropped into silence to wonder how the 
sound could be created where the means were lacking, the 
bass turned gradually to sub-bass. Suddenly he saw an 
irregularly intermitting spout of water near the. middle of. 
the river, then he noticed a troubled wrinkle across the 
river's entire front. He hastily let his boat come up into 
the wind and run into what seemed a cove on the east 
bank, and as she ran ashore there arose a loud shout of 
applause from a dozen men congregated there. 

" No one ever came so near before," said one* in 
French. 

" Saved by a minute ! " ejaculated another.- 
" Could he have meditated suicide ? " murmured a 
third. " No ; he looks not like one who has been dis- 
appointed in love." 



A CRISIS AND RESULT. 241 

The Cook courteously but firmly demanded an ex- 
planation, and one of the bystanders, a venerable man in 
the dusty coat of a miller, led him to a slight elevation 
to obtain it. Then the Cook saw that a natural and 
abrupt fall of about fifteen feet extended entirely across 
the river ! In an instant he vowed a handsome subscrip- 
tion to the campaign fund of whatever candidate might 
run against the Vice in the autumn campaign. 

The other boats approached in the order of their 
rapidity, the Chrysalids coming last, and the Vice's 
admission that his boat, with its keel, could never have 
escaped had it been in the Cherub's dangerous proximity 
to the falls, so reacted upon the Cook's temper that he 
alienated a portion of the intended subscription to the 
opposition campaign fund, and expended it upon a din- 
ner for four, for which he gave the proprietress of an 
adjoining hotel — ■*' Le Hotel de la Ville " — carte blanche. 
And the landlady did her best. For an hour she and 
several assistants hung over two stoves, while other 
assistants scoured the neighborhood for delicacies. The 
dinner was appetizing, as was all whereof the squadron par- 
took in Acadia after they had learned to avoid the railroad 
hotels. Finally after all else was disposed of, an immense 
dish of raspberries was placed upon the table, and be- 
side it a small bowl full of what seemed to be buttermilk. 

"There!" exclaimed the Vice, eying the bowl with 
manifest disgust, " that's an illustration of the effect of 
monarchical institutions upon physical habits. The din- 



242 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

ner has been perfect, thus far, but now, just when the 
climax should be attained, they offer us buttermilk ! " 

" Perhaps it's cream," suggested the Commodore. 

" Cream ? " said the Vice scornfully. " Oh no. I 
know cream. Cream is a thin blue fluid. This is not 
like it in the least." 

Here the Vice scooped a teaspoonful of the pasty 
fluid, and brought it gently towards his fastidious nose. 
Suddenly he tasted it, straightened rigidly, and exclaimed, 

" Judas Iscariot ! It is cream ! " 

The Vice said no more until he had sampled the 
bowl to the extent of a saucerful. Then he raised his 
face and displayed unwonted lines of thoughtfulness and 
conviction, as he exclaimed, 

" Gentlemen, if an English cow gave that cream, I 
have no hesitation in saying that our independence 
wasn't worth fighting for ! " 

" Huzza! " shouted the Commodore and the Purser, 
as they fell into each other's embrace and wept conserva- 
tive tears upon each other's blue shirt-collars, while the 
sternly patriotic Cook pushed the seductive bowl afar and 
whistled the "Star-Spangled Banner," as a counter-irritant. 
But when he asked for his bill, and found that it was but 
thirty-five cents for each individual, he retired to the 
hotel parlor where there was an asthmatic cottage-organ 
and penitently played " Rule, Britannia," keeping, how- 
ever, a cautious foot upon the soft pedal lest his tempo- 
rary lapse from national love should be discovered. 



PREPARING TO BE SEEN. 243 

On returning to the boats it was discovered that the 
small boy who had been engaged as watchman had ac- 
cumulated half a hundred deputies. As none of these 
expected any money, the fickle Vice fluctuated back to 
his first love among the nations, and was rebuked by the 
Commodore for judging all things by a financial standard. 

The breeze had apparently been to dinner too, for it 
was amazingly reinvigorated and marked about forty 
flaws to the hour. An order to carry only " dandy " 
sails was protested against by the entire command, and 
the Commodore, hoping that the coffin trade was not 
depressed in the shipping port at the river's mouth, re- 
luctantly gave way to the wishes of his subordinates. 
The result was that extraordinary time was made, and 
twenty-five miles were passed almost before the voyagers 
realized that the afternoon was waning. 

As they approached the close of their voyage, the the 
considerable town where their voyage was to end, it 
occurred to the squadron that its personal and individ- 
ual appearance was the reverse of prepossessing. A halt 
was accordingly made, and for an hour assiduous atten- 
tion was paid to baths, soap, shaving utensils, and the 
carefully preserved remnants of what had once been 
laundried articles of wear. The one pocket mirror had 
long since disappeared, so that certain delicate operations 
of the toilette were performed with some uncertainty. 
The Commodore had reached the final touches, and was 
tenderly arranging the thin locks which still cluster about 



244 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

his posterior cranial processes. To this task he devoted 
for a time all the powers of his gigantic intellect, but in 
the absence of the accustomed mirror, the result was un- 
satisfactory. Dropping his hand at last, the Commodore 
sighed, and looked around for assistance. The Vice, re- 
splendent in a white shirt and neck-tie, was unoccupied. 
To him the Commodore, tendering the fragmentary 
comb : 

" I say, Vice, part my hair, will you, please." 

The Vice marveled, but mechanically took the comb., 
while the Commodorial dome was bowed conveniently 
before him. Long he paused, so long that the Commo- 
dore, losing patience, called out, " Why don't you go 
ahead ? " 

" My dear boy," said the Vice, " So I would, but 
there's nothing in the world to part." 

The venerable mariner slowly straightened himself, 
looked blankly for a moment into the face of his lieu- 
tenant, and passed his hand reflectively over the smooth 
top of his head. 

" I beg your pardon, boys," he said at last. " I had 
forgotten. This cruise has made me so much younger 
that I thought I wasn't bald yet. It's high time for me 
to be back at the office — ' There'll be no parting there.' ' 

Of the remainder of the run, some five or six miles, 
no member of the squadron is mentally fitted to give a 
correct account. Every one wanted to be first in port, 
and the Vice, in anticipation of being the fortunate man, 



THE EAGLE DID NOT SCREAM. 245 

had secretly extemporized a new star spangled banner to 
carry at the peak of his mainsail. But both Red Lakers 
shot ahead of the Chrysalids, and the Vice at last igno- 
miniously took in his national ensign because it wasted a 
certain amount of wind.* Finding there was but one boat 
against him, the Cook assumed that he had himself al- 
ready won the race, so he began to compose a sarcastic 
address to be delivered to his associates as one by one 
they rejoined him at whatever landing-place he might 
select. While he composed he heard a whiz, he saw a 
shadow, and the wind died (apparently) so suddenly that 
he barely had time to adjust the trim of his boat to 
avoid capsizing. Looking about him he saw the great 
sails of the flagship passing him to windward, and he 
heard the voice of the Commodore, in tones which no 
combination of type can express, shouting, 

" Come to the best hotel and see me when you get 
in!" 

So the Cook looked about for some excuse to make 
for what would be his probable tardiness, and he soon 
found it. As he flew past a large assemblage of rafts, he 
found their occupants, all Canadians, in an extreme fever 
of curiosity to know how the boats were steered ; the 
wind being from their own bank, they could not see the 
steering-oar on the opposite side. They also looked upon 
the Red Lake boats, built in their own country, as utter 

* The astute congressman who occasionally enables the eagle to scream 
may find a valuable precedent in this act of the Vice. 



246 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

strangers, which fact enabled the Cook to moralize, by 
comparison, upon the ignorance of people about their 
own neighbors, and upon the peculiar fancies which in 
such cases are made to do duty as facts. The Cook ex- 
plained to the full extent of his knowledge and his 
French, and then, sighting the Chrysalids within a mile 
he sheared away, and within five minutes a swell from a 
steamer sent a wave of St. Lawrence water under his 
bows, and he saw the " Great Lone River of the North," 
from the midst of as entangling an alliance of steamers, 
barges, tugs, schooners, ferry-boats, yachts, fishing boats 
and pirogues as any canoe was ever imperilled of, while 
the Commodore lay under the lee of a decayed pier, and 
placidly smoked at his subordinate's confusion. 

The St. Lawrence was hailed with delight by the 
tardy Chrysalids when they reached it, and then the party 
strolled to the post office, debating whether to run up to 
Montreal, which course the wind favored, or down to 
Quebec, with the current and an occasional tide to help. 
All admitted that the cruise had but fairly begun ; placid 
lakes and beautiful rivers were all very well, but, 

" Give to them the roaring seas 
And the white waves heaving high," 

or as much thereof as was within the bestowal of a river 
many miles across. Just then they reached the post- 
office, their change of course deprived them of mail 
matter for several days. How it came about, nobody 
knew; but within an hour the Commodore, his boat 



AT THE CLUB DINNER. 247 

stowed for return as freight, was on a train for New York, 
and his comrades were mourning that they could not ac- 
company him. That evening all the canoes were stowed, 
and placed on board a south-bound canal-boat, while the 
Vice, the Purser and the Cook sat in Christian garb upon 
the deck of the Montreal steamer, smoked cigars instead 
of pipes, and discussed dados, symphony concerts, the 
woman question, the railroad riots, and the impending 
finance muddle as conventionally as if they had never 
lived out of doors. 

A few days later they met at a canoe club dinner in 
New York, but neither claw-hammer coat nor white 
tie could smother the fire within them as they discussed 
the merits of their respective boats. 

" The Chrysalids don't ziz-zag when they're paddled, 
as the keelless Red Lakers do," observed the Vice. 

" Nor do they keep within hailing distance in a breeze 
in which even a dead log would run and be joyful," re- 
torted the Commodore. 

" They need no lee-board to keep them from drifting 
down the wind," said the Purser. 

" Nor more than three men to land them on a shore 
upon which a gentle tug at the painter will beach a Red 
Laker," said the Cook. 

" Give me a boat," said the Vice, " which steers in the 
ordinary ship-shape manner." 

" I," remarked the Commodore, "prefer one whose 



248 CANOEING IN KANUCKIA. 

* 

Commander don't have to analyze a whole rope yard be- 
fore he can get her into sailing condition." 

" The idea of oil-cloth decks for any sort of a craft ! " 
exclaimed the Purser. 

" Or of decks that make you imagine it's resurrection 
morn, and you're crossing the Styx in your own coffin," 
said the Cook. 

" Order, gentlemen," shouted the ruler of the feast ; 
" if you've any personal difficulties to settle, please retire 
to the ante-room, and cease disturbing the club." 

" Ze ante-room," remarked the caterer, "is full of ze 
Alderman an' ze Judge, who fight about ze merits of ze 
Rob Roy boats an' ze paper canoe." 

"Then I will settle the question myself," said the Presi- 
dent, taking from his pocket a copper cent of the fathers. 
" Heads signifies the superiority of the Chrysalids, tails of 
the Red Lakers." 

The coin spun in the air, and the quartette sprang to 
its collective feet. It came down exactly edgewise into 
a bit of Fromage de Brie, and so remained. 



APPENDIX 



IN the preceding pages the authors have introduced 
in a desultory way some hints which it is hoped may- 
prove of practical use to inexperienced or possibly to ex- 
perienced canoeists. There are some questions however 
which are asked by every one who contemplates engaging 
in this delightful recreation, and to a few of these ques- 
tions answers are now volunteered. 

I. Where can I get a canoe ? 

The best answer is a list of builders. James Everson, 
Williamsburgh, N. Y., W. Jarvis, Ithaca, N. Y., and 
George Roahr, Harlem, N. Y., build excellent boats after 
the Nautilus model and its modifications. These all 
build on the well known lap-streak or clinker plan, using 
cedar planks and oak timbers. Mr. J. H. Rushton of 
Canton, N. Y., builds after the Nautilus and Rob Roy 
models, also after a model of his own. He has a peculiar 
method of construction, which makes his work very 
strong and serviceable. Walters & Sons, of Troy, N. Y., 
build paper boats after the Nautilus and Rob Roy mod- 
els, D. Herald, of Rice Lake, Ontario, Canada, builds 
canoes on a model of his own approximating to the best 
type of Indian "birch." His method of building is 
described on page 106. The model is admirable for 
speed, sea-worthiness and safety. At Ottawa, Canada, is 



250 APPENDIX. 

a builder named English whose boats are well spoken of 
but the authors are not personally acquainted with them. 
J. F. West, of East Orange, N. J., builds light and ser- 
viceable boats of ash strips covered with painted canvas. 
He does not build for sale, but will furnish information 
for those who wish to build for themselves. 

II. How much does a canoe cost ? 

Seven dollars a foot is not an unfair rule whereby to 
estimate the cost of a lap-streak, Nautilus model, including 
spars and rudder. Some builders charge more, others 
less than this. The Canadian canoes are cheapest of all, 
but to the first cost must be added the tariff duty for 
importation into the United States (about thirty per cent 
ad valorem). Herald's highest priced canoe, seventeen 
feet long, was at latest advices forty-five dollars. This 
size is built under his patent and copper fastened through- 
out. Built in the rib and-batten style, the price is ten 
dollars less and canoes of smaller sizes of both kinds still 
less. The Nautilus models are largely decked over fore 
and aft without extra cost, and are provided with ample 
water-tight compartments which are invaluable in case of 
accident and may be fitted with hatches which render 
them available for stowage. The other models whose 
first cost is less, are not provided with these conveniences 
except by special arrangement, involving of course addi- 
tional expense. A canoe may be purchased and fully 
rigged for less than a hundred dollars if her purchaser is 
gifted with mechanical ingenuity. Or if money is no 
object, the cost may be run up to almost any figure. 
The ordinary price of a double-bladed paddle is in the 
United States five dollars. All the builders make them. 
A specialist is Henry Mitchell, of Bergen, New Jersey. 



'APPENDIX. 251 

III. Miscellaneous. 

For sails use the best unbleached heavy twilled cotton 
sheeting, double width. Cut so that the selvedge will form 
the leach of the sail. Hem half an inch wide, stitched on 
both edges. Strong laid cotton cord about an eighth of 
an inch in diameter should be sewed along the luff of the 
sail, and is by no means undesirable along the other edges, 
loops for making fast being provided whenever needed. 
All these cotton articles should be well soaked before 
being made up to prevent unequal shrinkage. The plates 
entitled " Under full sail," and " Close hauled " give a suffi- 
ciently accurate idea of the size and shape of sails. The 
" Chrysalid," as drawn, is supposed to be fourteen feet 
long, and the " Red Laker" seventeen feet. From this 
the size of the sails can be easily ascertained. The flying 
jib shown in one of the cuts is of no practical use, and no 
one is advised to rig one. 

Laid or braided cotton cord of one-eighth-inch or a 
little more in diameter is best for running rigging. For 
painter use braided sash cord, or best Manilla hemp. 

Probably the best varnish for canoes, spars, paddles, 
etc., is " Pellucidite " Nos. I and 2, made by Seely and 
Stevens, of No. 32 Burling Slip, New York. The same 
house has " paste filling " which should be applied before 
the varnish. The best brown shellac is very good and 
possesses the inestimable virtue of drying in ten minutes. 
It may be applied over the paste filling above mentioned. 
All varnishes are better and clearer for being laid on and 
suffered to dry in the sun. 

All metal work about a canoe should be brass or cop- 
per. If it is nickel-plated, so much the better. 

Decks or coverings of some sort are essential. These 



252 APPENDIX. 

may be fixed as in the Nautilus model, or movable, which 
is better for obvious reasons. Canvas, rubber, or glazed 
cloth serve very well. A simple and inexpensive device 
is to sew small rings in the edges and hook them over 
small round-headed brass screws set along the gunwale. 
Let the screws be either on top of the gunwale or under 
it. If set along the outer edge they are sure to be 
knocked off. The authors, after a trial of flexible covers, 
have decided in favor of wooden decks, fastened along 
the gunwale with simple keys, staples, or buttons. If 
cloth is used ridge-poles are necessary to make a water- 
shed. Wooden decks should be cambered or arched for 
the same reason. The open central space should have a 
flexible cover available in rain. 

Some of the open canoes have thwarts which are 
curved downward. This makes them uncomfortable to 
sleep in, and ,the builder should be directed to curve 
them upward. They can be easily changed if desired. 

The masts should be stepped in fixed copper tubes, 
because these relieve the canoeist from the often difficult 
task of feeling about blindly for the lower step in the 
bottom of the boat, and because an accidental starting of 
the mast may lift it clear of the step, in which case, 
lacking the tube, it will inevitably split the deck. Suita- 
ble tapered tubes known as hose-pipes are kept in stock 
by dealers in copper tubing. The taper is an advanta'ge 
as the mast cannot well be stuck fast therein. Cost 
only a few cents. 

Bags of cork-shavings, air-pillows, tin cans, or other 
like devices may serve open canoes instead of the water- 
tight compartments of Nautili. 

Melted candle grease rubbed into a crack will make it 



APPENDIX. 253 

temporarily water tight. White lead is more permanent, 
and gutta-percha softened in warm water and pressed in 
is highly recommended. This last is not vouched for 
personally. 

Fine copper wire is very useful about a canoe for 
lashings, etc : 

Very light and easily working mast-rings may be 
made by stringing wooden or glass beads on stout copper 
wire, which is then bent to the desired size. Solid rings 
without beads (or " pearls " in strictly nautical phrase) are 
apt sometimes to hang on the mast. The beads serve as 
little wheels in running the sail up and down. 

The " latteen " rig is very pretty, but very dangerous. 
It is not recommended. The " standing lug " which is, 
in effect the latteen with nearly all the dangerous part cut 
off, works very well. 

A lee-board may be used to advantage in w r orking to 
windward. It should be hung over the lee-side a little 
forward of amidships. The simplest way of making it 
fast is to pass a line through holes in its upper edge so 
that turns can be taken over the cleats used for sheets. 
The strain of a lee-board is quite heavy and all its con- 
nections must be made strong. It has of course to be 
shifted from side to side as often as the canoe goes about. 

In paddling some sort of a cushion or elastic seat is 
necessary. Abrasions and possibly more serious difficul- 
ties will follow a disregard of this advice. 

Do not undertake to be a canoeist unless you can 
swim easily and well, and do not attempt to sail until you 
are well accustomed to your boat under paddle. 

To render cloth of any kind water-proof the following 
recipe may be found useful : 



254 APPENDIX. 

Into a bucket of soft water put half a pound of sugar 
of lead and half a pound of powdered alum : stir at in- 
tervals during a day or two until a clear, saturated solu- 
tion is formed. Pour off into another vessel, soak the 
cloth therein for twenty-four hours and then hang it to 
dry in the shade without wringing. By this process an 
insoluble salt is deposited on the cloth fibres and the fab- 
ric will shed water like a duck's back. Woolens such as 
good Scotch tweed, retain their water-proof qualities in- 
definitely, cottons not so long. 

A glue which is practically water-proof may be made 
by boiling isinglass (Russian is best) in skimmed milk. 
The proper proportion is about two ounces to a pint. 
Common glue treated in like manner is rendered a good 
deal more capable of resisting moisture than when made 
with water in the usual way. 



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MAZADE (Charles de) The Life of Count Cavour. Trans- 
lated by Geo. Meredith. Octavo, cloth extra, . . $3 00 

The life of Cavour is the record of the founding of the Kingdom of Italy, or rather 
of the forming of the Italian Nation. The biographer has brought to this work a hearty 
appreciation of and admiration for his subject, a full knowledge of the history 
of the time, and a terse, epigrammatic style ; and the translation has been per- 
formed with taste and accuracy. The volume is alike indispensable to the student of 
modern history, and fascinating to the general reader. 

PROCTOR (Richard A.) The Myths and Marvels of As- 
tronomy. Octavo, cloth. . . ... . . $4 00 

Mr. Proctor is always an interesting writer, and has taken for his present work a 
subject that under the dullest treatment would be fascinating reading. A large part of 
the volume is devoted to the Science of Astrology, which has itself produced a library 
of literature, and in the remaining chapters he discusses the long list of legends and 
marvels which the imagination of man nas from time immemorial associated with the 
heavenly bodies. 

SELECT BRITISH ESSAYISTS (The) A series planned to 
consist of half a dozen volumes, comprising the representative papers of 
The Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, Rambler, Lounger, Mirror, Looker- 
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i6mo, cloth extra, $1 25 

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Vol. III.— The Tatler. . . 

11 Mr. Habberton has given us a truly readable and delightful selection." — Liberal 

Christian. 

u The series will doubtless tend to revive a more general interest in a class of 

works which, in spite of the standard character conceded to them, are now greatly 

neglected." — N. Y. Tribune. 

VAN LAUN. The History of French Literature. By Henri 
Van Laun, Translator of Taine's " History of English Literature," 
the Works of Moliere, etc. 

Vol. I. — From its Origin to the Renaissance. 8 vo, 'cloth 
extra, $2 50. — Vol. II. — From the Renaissance to the Close of 
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the Reign of Louis XIV to that of Napoleon III. Svo, cloth 
extra, $2 50. 

The Set, three volumes, in box, half calf, $13 50, cloth extra, $7 5° 
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J last Published : 

POR REFERENCE, LIBRARIES, AND FAMILY lUfc, 

The Library Atlas, 

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and copious Indices, containing over 

50,000 names. Large 8vo. 

Half morocco, neat 14 00 

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A most exhaustive and comprehensive work of reference. 
It gives, brought down to the latest date, all the information 
and statistics to be found in the expensive and unwieldy 
folio Atlases, while its convenient octavo shape, the beauty 
and accuracy of its maps, which include Classical and His- 
torical, as well as Modern Geography, its complete index, 
which forms a Gazetteer by itself, and its moderate price, 
rendei it especially adapted for college, school, and student 

DM. 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 

182 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



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appeared for some years."— London Athenaeum. 

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PARKER. A Discourse on Matters Pertaining to 
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Introduction, by O. B. Frothingham, I2rno, cloth $1.50 

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DODGE. The Plains of the Great West, and their Inhabitants 

A vivid and picturesque description of the Western plains of the American 

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of emigration, &c, &c, and an exhaustive account of the life and habits of the 

Indians (both the "reserved " and the "unreserved"), their customs in fighting, 

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suggestions for the treatment of the Indian question. By Richard Irving 

Dodge, Colonel in the U.S. Army, i large octavo volume very fully illustrated, $4.00 

Colonel Dodge has, during many years, held positions of responsibility on the Western 

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the record of his experiences and observations will be found not only most fascinating reading. 

but a trustworthy and authoritative guide on the subjects of which it treats. 

VAN LAUN. The History of French Literature. 

By Henri Van Laun, Translator of Taine's " History of English Literature," 
the Works of Moliere, etc., etc. 

Vol. I.— FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE RENAISSANCE. 
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Svo, cloth extra, each, $2.50. 

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THE BEST READING. A Classified Bibliography for Easy 

Reference. With Hints on the Selection of Books, the Formation of Libraries, 
on Courses of Reading, etc. 15th Edition. Entirely re-written and brought 
down to August, 1876, with the addition of priced lists of the best books in 
French. German, Spanish and Italian Literature. 8vo, paper, $1.25; cloth, $1.75. 
" By far the best work of the kind."— College Conrant. 

THE SELECT BRITISH ESSAYISTS. A series planned to consist 
of half a dozen volumes, comprising the Representative Papers of The Spectator, 
Tatter, Guardian, Rambler, Lounger, Mirror, Looker-On, etc., etc. Edited, 
with Introduction and Biographical Sketches of the Authors, by John Habbertok. 
Vol. I.— THE SPECTATOR. By Addison and Steele. Square r6mo. 
beautifully printed, and tastefully bound in cloth extra, 81.25 

This series has been planned to preserve, and to present in a form at once attrsctive and 
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which, as well for the perfection of their English style, as for the sterling worth of their 
matter are deservedly perennial. 

Vol. 2. SIR ROGER DE COVERLY PAPERS. From The Spectator 

One volume, i6mo, $1.00. 

•' Mr. Habberton has given us a truly readable and delightful selection from a series of 
volumes that ought possibly never to go out of. fashion, hut which ».\ Uie re..*<>n of their 
t«c»irth »"<! sligHly antiquated form there is danger o( our overlooking _V.i/-rr.W ChiUUfw, 



Bayard Taylor's Novels. 

I. HANNAH THURSTON. A Story of American Life 

One voL i2mo, $2. Household edition $i 91 

" If Bayard Taylor has not placed himself, as we are half inclined to suspect, is 
the front rank of novelists, he has produced a very remarkable book — a really 
original story, admirably told, crowded with life-like characters, full of delicate 
and subtle sympathies, with ideas the most opposite to his own, and lighted up 
throughout with that playful humor which suggests always wisdom rather thau 
niere fun." — London Spectator. 

II. JOHN GODFREY'S FORTUNES. Related by Him- 

sell. i2mo, $2. Household edition $1 5c 

"'John Godfrey's Fortunes,' without being melodramatic or morbid, is one of 
the most fascinating novels which we have ever read. Its portraiture of American 
social life, though not flattering, is eminendy truthful ; its delineation of charactei 
; s delicate and natural ; its English, though sometimes careless, is singularly grate* 
ful and pleasant." — Cleveland Leader. 

III. THE STORY OF KENNETT. One vol. i2mo, $2. 

Household edition $1 5a 

"Mr. Bayard Taylor's book is deligktful and refreshing reading, and ? 

great rest after the crowded aitistic effects and the conventional interests of even 

the better kind of English novels." — London Spectator. 

"As a picture of rural life, we think this novel of Mr. Taylor's excels any of hit 

previous productions." — N. 1". Evening Post. 

"A tale of absorbing interest." — Syracuse Standard. 

IV. JOSEPH AND HIS FRIEND. A Story of Penn- 
sylvania. i2mo, cloth. $2. Household edition $1 5s 

" In Bayard Taylor's happiest vein." — Buffalo Express. 
" By far the best novel of the season." — Clevela>id Leader. 

V. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and TALES OF 
HOME. i2mo, cloth, §1.75. Household edition $* w 



Bayard Taylor's Travels. 

ELDORADO; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire 

(Mexico and California). i2mo, $2. Household edition $1 5* 

"To those who have more recently pitched their tents in California, the narra- 
tive of Taylor will have interest as assisting them to appreciate the wondrous 
changes that have been effected in this region since the days of turmoil, excite- 
ment, and daring speculation of which the tourist speaks." — Sacramento Union. 

CENTRAL AFRICA. Life and Landscape from Cairo to the 

White Nile. Two plates and cuts i2mo, $2. Household edition $1 5c 

" We have read many of Bayard Taylor's readable books— and he never wrote 
one that was not extremely interesting— but we have never been so well pleaded 
with any of his writings as we are with the volume now before us, ' A Journey to 
Central Africa.' " — Binghamton Republican. 

GREECE AND RUSSIA. With an Excursion to Ciete. 

Two plates, 12100, $2. Household edition Ji 5< 

" In point of flowing narrative and graphic description, this volume is fully 
equal to the previous works which have given Mr. Bayard Taylor *uch an emi 
«*ot place among modern travellers." — Harper's Monthlv. 



HOME; AND ABROAD. A Sketch-book of Life, Scenery, 

and Men. Two plates, nmo, $2. . Household edition. $1 5c 

— — (Second Series ) With two plates. i2mo, $2. Household edition, $1 5a 

"This is one of the most interesting books that B.'iyard Taylor has ever made. 
It is in a large measure autobiographical. Whatever has most impressed him is 
miy part of the earth is noted in some one or these letters." — Taunton Gazette 

" A volume from Bayard Taylor is always a pleasure. He not only knows ho\» 
to travel and how to enjoy it, but he excels in giving entertainment by his narra 
rion to others." — Bangor Whig. 

INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. Two plates. i 2 mo, $2. 
Household edition $1 50 

" Of all travellers, no one pleases us more than Bayard Taylor. He sees what 
we most desire that he should see, and he tells us that which we most desire to 
know." — New Bedford Mercury. 

LAND OF THE SARACEN ; or, Pictures of Palestine, 
Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain. With two plates. i2mo, $2. House- 
hold edition $1 5c 

NORTHERN TRAVEL. Summer and Winter Pictures 
of Sweden, Denmark, and Lapland. With two plates. i2mo, $2. 

Household edition $1 50 

"There is no romance to us quite equal to one of Bayard Taylor's books of 

travel." — Hartford Republican. 

VIEWS AFOOT; or, Europe seen with Knapsack and 

Star). i2mo, $2. Household edition $1 50 

" We need say nothing L. praise of Bayard Taylor's writings. He travels in 
every direction, and sees and hears pretty much all that is worth seeing and hear- 
ing. His descriptions are accurate, and always reliable and interesting." — 
Syracuse Journal. 

BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. i2mo, $2. Household edi- 

tion $« 50 

Contents : 
A Familiar Letter to the Reader. A Cruise on Lake Lagoda, Betweer 
Europe and Asia. Winter-Life in St. Petersburgh. The Little Land of Appen 
sell. From Perpignan to Montserrat. Balearic Days. Catalonian Bridle-Roads 
The Republic of the Pyrenees. The Grand Chartreuse. The Kyff hauser ant 
its Legends, A Week at Capri. A Trip to Ischia. The Land of Paoli. The 
Island of Maddalena. In the Teutoberger Forest. The Suabian Alp. 



BAYARD TAYLOR'S COMPLETE WORKS. 



THE COMPLETE WORKS OF BAYARD TAYLOR. 

In fifteen volumes. People's edition, cloth, $30. Household edi- 
tion $22 S« 

THE TRAVELS, separate, ten volumes, $22.50. House- 
hold edition #15 « 

%• Sent post-paid, on receipt 0/ price, by 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers 



By JOHN HABBERTON. 



I. OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN. 

By the author of " Helen's Babies, 1 ' . . $1 £5 

IT. BUDGE AND TODDIE. An Illus- 
trated Edition of " Other People's Children," 1 75 

III. THE SCRIPTURE CLUB OF 

VALLEY REST; or, Sketches of 
Everybody's Neighbors, 1 00 

IV. THE BARTON EXPERIMENT,. 100 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers, 

New York. 



Bayard Taylor's Novels. 

I. HANNAH THURSTON. A Story of American Life 

One voL i2mo, $2. Household edition $1 51 

" If Bayard Taylor has not placed himself, as we are half inclined to suspect, in 
the front rank of novelists, he has produced a very remarkable book— a really 
original story, admirably told, crowded with life-like characters, full of delicate 
and subtle sympathies, with ideas the most opposite to his own, and lighted up 
throughout with that playful humor which suggests always wisdom rather thai. 
mere fun." — London Spectator. 

II. JOHN GODFREY'S FORTUNES. Related by Him- 
self. i2mo, $2. Household edition $150 

" 'John Godfrey's Fortunes,' without being melodramatic or morbid, is one of 
the most fascinating novels which we have ever read. Its portraiture of American 
social life, though not nattering, is eminently truthful ; its delineation of character 
\s delicate and natural ; its English, though sometimes careless, is singularly grate 
ful and pleasant." — Cleveland Leader. I 

III. THE STORY OF KENNETT. One vol. 121110, $2. 
Household edition $ 1 5 «, 

"Mr. Bayard Taylor's book is delightful and refreshing reading, and a 
great rest after the crowded artistic effects and the conventional interests of even 
the better kind of English novels."— London Spectator. 

"As a picture of rural life, we think this novel of Mr. Taylor's excels any of hii 
previous productions." — N. Y. Evening Post. 
•"A tale of absorbing interest." — Syracuse Standard. 

IV. JOSEPH AND HIS FRIEND. A Story of Penn- 
sylvania. i2mo, cloth, $2. Household edition $1 gj 

"In Bayard Taylor's happiest vein." — Buffalo Express. 
" By far the best novel of the season." — Cle?>eland Leader. 

V. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and TALES OF 

HOME. i2mo, cloth, #1.75. Household edition $* «jo 



Bayard Taylor's Travels. 

ELDORADO ; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire 

(Mexico and California). i2ino, $2. Household edition $15* 

"To those who have more recently pitched their tents in California, the narra- 
tive of Taylor will have interest as assisting them to appreciate the wondrous 
changes that have been effected in this region since the days of turmoil, excite- 
ment, and daring speculation of which the tourist speaks." — Sacramento Union. 

CENTRAL AFRICA. Life and Landscape from Cairo to the 

White Kile. Two plates and cuts- 121110, §2, Household edition $150 

" We have read many of Bayard Taylor's read-able books — and he never wrote 
one that was not extremely interesting — but we have never been so well pleaded 
with any of his writings as we are with the volume now before us, 'A Journey to 
Central Africa.' " — Binghamton Republican. 

GREECE AND RUSSIA. With an Excursion to Crete. 

Two plates, i2mo, $2. Household edition $1 SB 

"In point of flowing narrative and graphic description, this volume U fullj 
fejual to the previous woiks which have given Mr. Uayard Taylor wuch aiiemi 
*ot place among modern travellers."— Harper's Monthly. 



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